Vande Bharat flight departs from Qatar with 178 Indians

A special flight under Vande Bharat Mision departed from Qatar with 178 stranded Indians for Kerala's Kannur.

"IX- 1774 took off from HIA for Kannur a short while ago with 178 passengers and 6 infants. This was the 31st flight from Doha under #Vandebharat, bringing the total number of repatriated passengers go 5262, plus 151 infants," India in Qatar tweeted.

'Vande Bharat' mission is a Government of India's initiative to bring home Indian nationals stranded in various parts of the world due to restrictions over air travel to contain COVID-19 spread.

A total of 1,65,375 people have returned, including 29,034 migrant workers under Vande Bharat Mission, said Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Anurag Srivastava on Thursday.

The exercise began on May 7 and its second phase started on May 16.

The third phase of exercise began on June 11 and continue till June 30.

( With inputs from ANI )