Air India Express flight IX 434 from Dubai carrying 181 passengers, including 75 pregnant women, landed at the Cochin International Airport on Saturday, as part of the second phase of the Centre's ambitious 'Vande Bharat' mission to bring stranded Indian nationals back home.
Vande Bharat Mission, which started on May 7 to bring back stranded Indian nationals back home from other countries, initiated its second phase of operation from Saturday by sending three Air India flights to Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Under the second phase of Vande Bharat Mission, a total of 149 flights, including feeder flights, will be operated to bring back Indians from 40 countries.
Neeraj Agarwal, press consul at the Indian consulate told Khaleej Times that all women are over 32 weeks pregnant. "We have one woman who is in the 35th week of her pregnancy. Two doctors and two nurses are on-board the flight to assist the women in case of emergencies," said Agarwal.
A total of 181 passengers are on-board the flight to Kochi, said the Consul.
The Phase 2 of 'Vande Bharat Mission' has officially begun on May 16 and there will be 18 repatriation flights from the UAE to India with 13 flights to Kerala, in the following days.
Agarwal called the flight a 'truly extraordinary' one as people with various and several distresses who are flying home.
"Along with pregnant women, we have 35 medical cases of which 28 are serious. This includes a patient in the last stages of cancer, one patient with a brain tumour and two passengers who are to undergo a kidney transplant -- the donor and the receiver," said Agarwal.
"Today flight IX434 to Kochi is very different as it carries many pregnant women, 35 medical cases, senior citizens and few who lost their near ones, back in India. Check in and medical screening going on smoothly #VandeBharat," the Embassy of India in Dubai said on Twitter.
The Consulate stated that in the first phase of Vande Bharat Mission, a total of 2,079 passengers were repatriated from Dubai to India. The breakup is as follows -- workers 760, stranded tourists, visitors and students 438, medical emergency cases 398, pregnant women 190, senior citizens 126 and others 167.
( With inputs from ANI )