Pune: 176 Passengers from Jeddah arrived under Vande Bharat Mission
Sushant Ranjan
Pune June 23, 2020: As many as 176 Indian Nationals stranded in Jeddah due to COVID-19 lockdown arrived at Pune Airport at 1.15 am on Tuesday. The passengers arrived under Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) phase 3.
According to Customs Deputy Commissioner Motilal Shete, “Indigo flight under Vande Bharat Mission 6E-9773 arrived at Pune Airport from Jeddah at 1:15 am. A total of 176 passengers arrived. One of the passengers who had symptoms has been sent for testing.”
The Union Civil Aviation Minister also tweeted about the mission. He posted on Twitter, “Evacuation & repatriation flights continue in managed & controlled conditions under VBM till countries open up to normal international traffic. More than 120K people have returned to India on Vande Bharat flights so far. 4411 people have returned from various countries on June 22.”
Airport Authority of India (AAI), Customs, Immigration and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) coordinated to facilitate the movement. All the agencies including Customs followed COVID-19 SOPs including use of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), maintaining social distancing, use of sanitizers, etc.
On Sunday, an Air Arabia flight arrived carrying 168 passengers stranded at Sharjah due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
