An Air India Express flight from Bahrain with 175 evacuees landed at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
Air India Express IX 890 from Bahrain landed at 8.31 pm, airport sources said.
This was the second flight to reach Hyderabad airport under the second phase of the Vande Bharat Mission, the evacuation exercise of India aimed to bring back Indian nationals stranded in various countries due to the COVID-19 lockdown. The first phase of the mission that began on May 7 and ended on May 13 brought back 2,350 stranded Indians from six countries to Hyderabad.
After completing all formalities, the passengers from Bahrain were transported to designated locations in the city for a mandatory 14-day quarantine as per guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
To facilitate the arriving passengers from Bahrain, the Hyderabad International Airport kept the international arrivals and the entire stretch right from the aerobridge to the arrivals ramp, fully sanitised and fumigated.
The airport also enforced physical distancing among passengers right from the aerobridge till across the terminal.
All arriving passengers and aircraft crew were brought out from the aircraft in a batch of 20-25 persons each. Each passenger/crew was screened by the thermal cameras positioned at the aerobridge exit under supervision of the Airport Health Officials (APHO) as per directives of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare prior to immigration formalities.
After the health screening of passengers, CISF personnel in their protective gear escorted the group of passengers to immigration clearance.
Glass shields were provided at each manned immigration counter to avoid any personal contact between the passengers and Immigration officers. Each counter had specified physical distancing norms in place.
Every piece of baggage was sanitised by the disinfection tunnel integrated to the baggage belt as arranged by the airport.
The Hyderabad airport has handled nine arrival evacuations flights under the first phase of the mission.
Under the first phase of the ‘Vande Bharat Mission’, the government of India operated 64 flights to bring home nearly 14,800 nationals stranded abroad. The second phase of the evacuation is presently ongoing from May 16 to June 3.