ERNAKULUM: Kerala is prepared to receive the first flights under the Vande Bharat Mission on Thursday, readying nearly three lakh quarantine beds and ultraviolet tunnels in airports to disinfect passenger luggage. The mission is being touted as the world’s largest evacuation exercise to bring back home Indian nationals stranded in foreign countries due to covid-19.
The first two Air India flights of the mission, from Abu Dhabi and Dubai, are expected to arrive with 368 passengers in Kerala’s Kochi and Karipur airports later today. The state will also accommodate bulk of nearly 15,000 Indians who will be airlifted by 64 flights as part of the mission.
The first aircraft is expected to reach Abu Dhabi at 3:15 pm local time, lift 179 passengers by 4:15 pm and land at Kochi airport by 9:40 pm, said Cochin International Airport Ltd, the company that operates the airport, in a statement.
