Flight with 153 Indians from Dubai lands at Chandigarh airport

A special Air India flight has brought back 153 stranded Indians from Dubai under the Centre’s Vande Bharat Mission, Chandigarh International Airport officials said on Wednesday (June 3).

The AI 1916 flight landed at the international airport on Tuesday (June 2) night. This was the third flight under the mission to land in Chandigarh. Earlier, 244 Indians were brought back through special flights from New York and Ukraine’s capital Kiev.

Eighty of the passengers who landed on Tuesday belonged to Punjab, the officials said. Thirty-seven of them belonged to Himachal Pradesh, 13 from Haryana, 11 from Chandigarh, four each from Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir, and two each from Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

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All passengers will be taken to their home districts under the supervision of officials, where they will be quarantined according to government guidelines. All precautionary measures related to COVID-19 were said to be in place at the international airport. The passengers were screened by the Punjab health department authorities. The Centre had recently said the mission to bring back stranded Indians will continue till June 13 and the extended phase will cover 47 countries.

As per the government policy, Indians having “compelling reasons” such as pregnant women, elderly people, students, and those facing prospects of deportation are being brought back.