Mission Vande Bharat: Indians stranded in US return home

IT professional Shreecharan Charda, from Hanamkonda in Telangana, is among scores of stranded Indians, who is relieved to be on board special flight from Washington DC to Delhi and Hyderabad-bound flight.

The Texas-based software engineer working with the Citigroup is compelled to travel at this time only because he was not able to be there during his father's final hours.

Charda is one of the 240 Indians who had been stuck in the United States amid the spread of the coronavirus but have now left Washington on an early morning (local time) Air India flight to New Delhi.

A special Air India flight AI 104, expected to first touch down in Delhi and then Hyderabad, departed from Washington on Tuesday night, on the fourth day of the Centre's ambitious Vande Bharat Mission to bring stranded Indians national back home.

The plane arrived at the Dulles International Airport on Monday and left for Delhi on Wednesday.

Speaking to Indian ambassador to the United States Taranjit Sandhu told some 28000 Indians still wish to return and after a successful Phase one of the Vande Bharat mission, the embassy is now working on phase 2 of the repatriation efforts.

"We will have three more flights in the first phase, they'll be a total of seven. And then we are expecting the second phase to begin in which also there will be seven more flights and thereafter we will see what is the requirement," Sandhu told .

( With inputs from ANI )