First repatriation flight to India set to depart tomorrow with 177 passengers

TDT | Manama

Nearly 177 Indian nationals in Bahrain are scheduled to fly home tomorrow as part of repatriation efforts organised by India’s government. It is the world’s largest-ever repatriation mission, and it begins in other countries today, with an expected 15,000 Indians stranded abroad due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to be flown home.

Tomorrow’s flight is the first of two from Bahrain in the first week of the repatriation efforts. It is scheduled to depart at 4 pm with a total of 177 passengers, and it will fly to the city of Kochin in the coastal state of Kerala.

This group of passengers were chosen by the Indian Embassy in the Kingdom. Some of those selected visited the Embassy yesterday to collect their tickets, which were all paid for by the passengers themselves.

Each ticket costs BD84 per person. A total of 122 were collected at the Embassy yesterday with the support of Air India, with the remaining passengers expected to pick theirs up by today.

Tomorrow’s flight will be followed by the second this week on Monday, which will fly to the city of Kozhikode, also in Kerala. These tickets cost BD74 per passenger.

The two flights from Bahrain are within the first phase of the ambitious “Vande Bharat Mission”, in which Air India will operate 64 non-commercial flights to 12 countries including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain, to name a few.

Up to 400 Indians are expected to fly out of Bahrain this first week. Apart from their tickets, all returning Indians will have to pay for a mandatory 14-day institutionalised quarantine.