Opertion Vande Bharat – Burning Issues – Free PDF Download

Vande Bharat Mission

• In one of the largest evacuation exercises since the 1990 Kuwait airlift, the government will operate 64 flights from May 7 to 13 to bring home thousands of Indian nationals stranded abroad due to the coronavirus lockdown.
• Under the repatriation plan, the government will be facilitating the return of Indians stranded abroad on compelling grounds in a phased manner.

Embassies as point of contact

• MEA said that preparations for the operation had commenced and urged the stranded individuals to stay in touch with the Indian embassies in their respective countries.

Air India to the rescue

• National carrier Air India and Air India Express will operate the ‘special ferry’ flights from various Indian cities.
• In the first week, the carriers will operate 64 flights to bring back 14,800 stranded Indians from 12 countries.
• Overall, more than 190,000 Indian nationals are expected to be brought back in the airlift operation.

• The Indian Air Force has also prepared about 30 aircraft, including
• C-17 Globemaster And C-130J Super Hercules, for the mission

Air India in action since January

• Since the outbreak started in Wuhan in January, Air India has been conducting various repatriation flights to virus-affected cities like Wuhan in China and Rome in Italy to bring back Indian nationals.
• It has also been instrumental in repatriating foreigners to Israel, UK and Germany.

2 way traffic

• Passage from India to various destinations
• Ministry of Home Affairs stated that a person who has an OCI card, or held the citizenship of a foreign country, or held a valid visa of more than one year of that country, or had the green card of that country, can travel on the repatriation flight leaving India under the Vande Bharat mission.

What categories of people will be given priority?

• Compelling cases in distress
• Migrant workers, labourers who have been laid off
• Those faced with expiry of short term visas.
• Persons with medical emergency
• Pregnant women, elderly
• Those required to return to India due to death of family member
• Students

Medical Precautions

• Passengers will be medically screened before taking the flight.
• Only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to travel.
• During the journey, all passengers will have to follow government-issued health guidelines
• All passengers would have to download “Aarogya Setu” mobile app
• The passengers will also have to sign an undertaking to go into a 14-day quarantine on arrival in India.

Ticket costs?

• Passengers will be charged a fixed amount for the flight.
• Example – Passengers being repatriated from the US will be charged Rs 1 lakh, while those from Dubai will have to shell out Rs 13,000.
• The MEA will give travellers two days notice with the schedule (day, place and time of arrival) of the incoming flight on its website.

Operation Samudra Setu

• The Indian Navy has launched Operation “Samudra Setu” (sea bridge) to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas.
• Naval ships Jalashwa and Magar are enroute to the port of Male to evacuate people from May 8
• The INS Shardul was diverted to Dubai to evacuate the expatriates and it will return to Kochi.

Evacuation from Kuwait

• Three decades ago, Air India led a group of airlines as well as Indian Air Force to rescue an estimated 111,711 Indians from the Gulf, after Iraq invaded Kuwait in the year 1990.
• The 59-day operation involved 488 flights

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