Over 41,000 stranded Tamils return home during lockdown

 This is besides the scores of people from other States who could have passed through Tamil Nadu during the lockdown, the officials added. As on Wednesday, 134 flights landed in Chennai carrying 19,668 passengers. Tiruchy airport received 12,820 passengers from abroad on 77 flights, while Madurai airport received 4,864 passengers on 29 flights. At Coimbatore, 3,562 passengers arrived on 21 flights till Tuesday.

 Of the total passengers, 67 per cent were men, 31 per cent were women while the rest two per cent were children and infants. Among the returnees who landed at the different airports in the State, 751 passengers, including 562 at the Chennai airport, were tested COVID positive.

 When asked about the share of Vande Bharat Mission, an official at the Chennai airport said of the 134 flights that landed in the city as on Wednesday, 91 were Vande Bharat flights while the remaining 43 were foreign and private carriers. Of the passengers who arrived at Chennai airport, 55.7 per cent were evacuated under Vande Bharat mission while the rest used private and foreign flights to return home after being stranded abroad for over two months. In May, the State government officials had said that 10 per cent of the nearly 6 lakh Tamil people employed overseas were trying to return to their natives.

As many as 873 Indians from Oman, Qatar, Sharjah and Kuwait arrived at Chennai airport on Wednesday night. The first flight arrived from Muscat with 183 employees of a private firm on Wednesday evening. They were taken to hotels after clearance. Later a special flight from Qatar arrived with 177 Indians, including eight children. After completing the COVID-19 test, 114 passengers chose the free stay and the rest were taken to hotels. Later in the night, a special flight from Sarjha and Kuwait arrived with 181 and 173 Indians respectively. In the early morning, a special flight from Sarjha arrived with 159 people. After check-up, 101 of them chose free stay and 55 were taken to hotels.