Two special flights from UAE with over 350 passengers reach Chennai

Two Air India repatriation flights from Dubai with 350 Indian nationals onboard landed in Chennai on Saturday. The flights took off from Dubai International Airport evacuating Indians stranded in the United Arab Emirates due to the coronavirus lockdown.

Chennai (Tamil Nadu):Two special flights from United Arab Emirates (UAE), Dubai arrived in Chennai with 350 stranded Indians on Saturday.

The first special flight to reach Chennai International Airport from Dubai came with 182 Indian nationals including three children. In the next Air India IX540 - POB 177, 177 Indian nationals landed at the Chennai Airport.

"The screening for coronavirus has already started on the 182 passengers. As per the guidelines, they will be placed under quarantine," read an official statement.

As coronavirus pandemic continues, the repatriation is being carried out under India's massive evacuation effort named 'Vande Bharat Mission', which began on Thursday. On Friday, the second day of the mission, four flights landed in India.

While 182 Indian nationals arrived at Cochin International Airport on a special flight from Bahrain's Manama, an Air India flight AI 381, carrying 234 passengers, landed in New Delhi from Singapore.

An AI 1242 flight from Dhaka landed in Srinagar and the third flight from Riyadh touched down in Kozhikode, Kerala.

Through the Vande Bharat Mission, 64 flights and three Navy ships will repatriate nearly 15,000 Indians stranded abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic.

(ANI Report)