Indians From Muscat To Arrive At Hyderabad Airport

HYDERABAD: As part of the second phase of Vande Bharat Evacuation Mission, national carrier Air India flight is expected to bring back Indian nationals from Muscat at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Shamshabad here on Monday evening.

Air India Express IX 818 is pressed into service for the evacuation.

Earlier, in the day, a departure repatriation flight for Oman nationals stranded in the city took off from RGIA to Mumbai.

A relief charter flight of Star Air – OG 9111, which operated purely as a domestic flight, departed at 7.12 am with 28 passengers to Mumbai. The passengers were then airlifted by an Air India Express flight to Oman.

The India embassy in Muscat in a tweet wrote, "#VandeBharatMission brings joy to our Omani friends also as @airindiain flight from India that landed in Muscat a short while ago to ferry back Indian passengers, brought back 37 Omani nationals."

According to airport officials, all departing passengers were serviced through the fully sanitized Interim International Departures Terminal of the RGIA as per all safety protocol.

The government launched the 'Vande Bharat Mission' on May 7 to evacuate Indians stranded in various countries due to coronavirus-related restrictions. Under the phase one of the mission, the government has evacuated a total of 12,000 Indians from the Gulf region as well as countries like the US, the UK, Philipines, Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Maldives.

Over 32,000 stranded Indians will be brought back home from 21 countries under the second phase of the government's mega evacuation mission from May 16 to 22.

The Vande Bharat Mission is the largest and most complex exercise ever undertaken by the government for the repatriation of our nationals stranded overseas, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.

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