The second week of India's massive repatriation effort will focus on Russia, the CIS nations and Europe, where there are huge student populations, all stranded due to COVID-19 lockdowns across the world.
The government is planning on hub-and-spoke models, wherever commercially feasible, where, for example, evacuees from Latin American nations might first be brought to a US airport, and from there be airlifted to an Indian one. The government will also start operations in smaller airports like Tirupati, Bodh Gaya, Kannur, Vijaywada and Mangaluru, so that the evacuees are able to return as close to their home station as possible.
While there are lakhs of Indians who had requested help to return, to date 67,833 have registered for a berth back home. Students comprise the largest number of those who have registered to return—22,470—making up 34 per cent of the total. Migrant labour is the next big chunk at 15,815 (30 per cent), followed by short term visa holders (9,250) those facing medical emergencies and treatment for terminal diseases (5,531), tourists stranded abroad (4,147) pregnant women and elderly (3,041) and those required to return due to the death of a family member (1,112).
Statewise, the bookings for Kerala are by far the largest at over 25,000, followed far behind by Tamil Nadu at 6,000. Around 4,000 have booked to return to Maharashtra, 3,700 to Uttar Pradesh, 3,000 to Telangana, 2,500 each to Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Delhi.
Flights on Week 1 are coming from 12 countries—the Gulf region, US, UK, and south-east Asia. 27 flights are from the Gulf region which includes 11 from UAE, five from Saudi Arabia, five from Kuwait, two each from Bahrain, Qatar and Oman. Seven flights from Bangladesh will carry passengers to Srinagar, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. From south-east Asia, 14 flights are scheduled, five each from Singapore and the Philippines and four from Malaysia. The seven flights from the US are from Washington DC, New York, Chicago and San Francisco, while there are seven flights heading back from London. Four of these flights have already landed, and the passengers have been sent to institutional quarantine for a fortnight.
The Maldives run of Operation Samudra Setu is a mega exercise, with plans to evacuate around 2,000 Indians over four voyages. The first of these, from Male to Kochi, has already begun, bringing back 750 Indians by May 10 on board INS Jalashwa.
INS Magar will leave Male on May 10, with another 200 passengers, to reach Kochi by May 12.
The two warships will then head back to Male for repatriating another lot of passengers. This time, the port of destination will be Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu.
There are around 27,000 Indian nationals spread across 200 islands of the Maldives, a spread of 800 km. About 4,500 of them have conveyed the wish to return.
It is not clear at the moment what the current plans are on repatriating the remaining 2,500 Indians. As per the standard operating procedure, priority is given to the most compelling cases, this of such are those facing deportation and those who have lost their jobs. Pregnant women, the terminally ill and the elderly are also high priority cases.
Sources say this is a major evacuation effort, given the spread of the islands and the fact that the Maldives is itself under lockdown.
Indian Navy has deployed three ships for the evacuations. The third, INS Shardul, is headed towards the Persian Gulf.
