29 more flights to bring stranded Indians to State

Chennai

The additional flights were part of Phase 3 of the mission that commenced on June 18, under which 587 flights would be operated, the Ministry added in its submission before a division bench comprising Justice R Subbiah and Justice Krishnan Ramasamy in response to a plea moved by the principal opposition party, DMK, seeking transport of stranded Indians to Tamil Nadu.

The hearing of the case was then adjourned it to June 29.

In its counter, the Ministry said out of the 4.87 lakh Indians who submitted repatriation requests, about 2.63 lakh have returned while 2.24 lakh were pending. Similarly, out of the 45,242 requests seeking repatriation to Tamil Nadu, 17,701 have returned while 27,547 requests were pending, the counter added.

However, it pointed out that while many Indian nationals who have returned to Tamil Nadu came via flights that landed in airports in the State, many also came through flights to other states and then reached Tamil Nadu through domestic flights, trains or by road.

In addition to flights under the mission, several chartered flights from various countries were also bringing back Indian nationals.