Vande Bharat Mission: Air India flight departs from Melbourne with 229 stranded Indians

An Air India flight under the Vande Bharat Mission carrying 229 stranded Indians departed from Melbourne for Delhi and Hyderabad on Wednesday.

"Another morning another flight.. 229 people flew back home today via AI0309 Mel-Del-Hyd We wish you all a happy journey," India in Melbourne tweeted.

On Tuesday, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted, "Vande Bharat continues to be a mission of hope and happiness for stranded and distressed Indians around the world. So far, nearly 125K Indians have come back on these evacuation flights and nearly 43K have flown out of India. Today (on Tuesday) 6,037 people returned from different countries."

As many as 2,50,087 Indian nationals stranded abroad have been repatriated since the beginning of Vande Bharat Mission last month, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said last week.

The Vande Bharat Mission, which started from May 7 to evacuate Indians stranded abroad due to coronavirus pandemic, is in its third phase.

The recent phase commenced on June 11.

Under the third phase, India would have 550 flights including 191 feeder flights.

( With inputs from ANI )