Vande Bharat 3: 193 Indians reach Kolkata from New York

A special evacuation flight of Air India, carrying 193 Indians from New York, arrived at Kolkata airport on Wednesday morning as part of the 'Vande Bharat' mission, aimed at bringing Indian nationals stranded in various countries due to coronavirus pandemic.

The Air India flight - 102 had left New York on June 8, according to the Indian Embassy in the US.

The third phase of the Vande Bharat Mission started today (June 10) and will last till July 1.

The schedule has 356 flights, which include the return services and domestic connections.

"All domestic flights mentioned in schedule below are meant for international connecting passengers departing and arriving on the Air India evacuation flights," the national carrier said in the schedule.

The second phase had about 180 flights and the first, which ran between May 7 and 15, had 64 flights.

While the first phase brought back about 15,000 Indians home, the second phase carried nearly 30,000 citizens till May 29.

The mission, said to be the largest repatriation exercise in the world, intends to bring back over two lakh Indians stranded across the world since the lockdown was announced in March. The government had suspended domestic and international flights as part of the lockdown.

Air India announced that bookings for the third phase began on June 5.

( With inputs from ANI )