The rescue mission to bring back all the stranded NRIs back India is likely going to start on Thursday. The government has allotted 64 flights to evacuate 14,800 NRIs from 12 nations. Out of them, 15 services are going to start from Kerala.
The first flight is going to operate from Dubai to Kerala and the passengers will have to pay a ticket fare of INR 13,000 for the journey.
The Central Government has reported that they are going to make 64 flights functional from May 07 to May 13 to bring back all the stranded Indian nationals who have urged to come back.
All of these special flights are going to be operated by Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express to help repatriate the stranded NRIs back to the country from 12 nations including the UAE, UK, US, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.
In the first week of repatriation from May 07 to May 13, India will likely conduct 10 flights to the UAE, along with seven flights to US and UK, five to Saudi Arabia, five to Singapore and two to Qatar.
Aside from that, reports suggest that seven flights each to Malaysia and Bangladesh will be sent, along with five flights each to Kuwait and Philippines and two to Oman and Bahrain.
Out of all of these 64 repatriation flights, 15 are going to take off from Kerala, 11 from Delhi and Tamil Nadu each, 7 from Maharashtra and Telangana each and the remaining would include five other states in the country.
Following the decisions, all the important Covid-19 evacuation protocols and the exit social distancing norms have further been underway at the Cochin Airport.
The airports are undergoing three phased disinfection along with mock drills for testing out of the different systems have been underway too. The installation of the thermal scanners along with the temperature guns have also been done at the arrival area. All the synthetic or textile wrapped furniture have been replaced with plastic items. The timings for the flights are still not disclosed.
Apart from the air lifts, the government has already sent three naval ships to evacuate the citizens stranded in Maldives and UAE because of the Covid-19 outbreak.
The INS Jalashwa along with INS Magar have been deployed off Mumbai to Maldives on Monday night. The INS Shardul has been diverted to Dubai to get the stranded NRIs back.
All the three ships will return to Kochi after rescuing all the Indian nationals.
Around 200 individuals stuck in Maldives are expected to arrive in Kochi by next week. They are also going to under 14 days of quarantine after returning. All the expenses for the quarantine facility and such will have to be incurred by the expats.
Over 4 lakh Non-Keralites have registered via the online portal started by the government to retrieve all of them stranded outside India. The list has already been prepared and handed over to the embassies in various countries.
Aside from the keralites stranded outside India, some of them have even registered who are stranded in a different state in the country.
The centre has reported that they are not going to bear the flight tickets for the expats who want to return home.
All the evacuations will begin only after all the states have reported the completion of the necessary arrangements to accommodate all the rescued individuals for the 14-days quarantine facilities.
