NRIs Shares Their Evacuation Experience to India (Vande Bharat Mission)

During phase two of the Vande Bharat mission, about 30,000 Indians will be returning to India. 14,800 Indians have already brought o India during the first phase.

An NRI has shared her experience being evacuated from UK to India on an Air India flight.

Here’s the TLDR summary.

• May 7: Added to the HCI waitlist (after filing application online)
• May 7: Travel confirmation received
• May 8: Added to Air India waitlist
• May 9: Payment made to Air India
• May 10: Received flight tickets approx 8 hours before ETD
• Air India has been very responsive with queries
• Those with symptoms will not be allowed to travel
• If detected with fever, you will be deboarded and taken to quarantine at your expense
• Packaged food served in flight. No service/personal contact
• Washroom access unrestricted inside flight. No queuing
• No protective gear provided. Bring your own
• Social distancing practiced right from flight
• Health check after landing
• Quarantine happens in good hotels
• No choice of hotel but only category
• Health checkups and testing done at hospitals
• Hotel food and service is very good
• No home quarantine option available
• No visitors/relatives allowed in airport/hotel
• No payments for swab tests

Thanks to Meghana for sharing her experience on Twitter.

Here are some excerpts.

Before boarding

In the last 72 hours
May 7: added to the HCI waitlist
May 7: received call from HCI confirming my intention to travel
May 8: added to AI waitlist
May 9: my details, payment requested by AI
May 10: received ticket approx 8 hours before ETD#VandeBharatMission

— Meghana (@GoingMeghana) May 10, 2020

Food provided in flight

Boarded after 1.5 hours delay (as of now) due to problems in ticketing. Only 2/3rds of the plane has received protective equipment as of now.
Two big boxes of packaged food and water placed on each seat. #VandeBharatMission pic.twitter.com/RK00yG5S3n

— Meghana (@GoingMeghana) May 10, 2020

Generous boxes of snacks provided (3 per passenger) Will keep us going till we reach our quarantine facilities and maybe later as well. #VandeBharathMission
@airindiain pic.twitter.com/Sz00aWaAHf

— Meghana (@GoingMeghana) May 11, 2020

Hotel rates

Once again sharing cost of hotels *in Bangalore* as given to me at the airport:#VandeBharatMission pic.twitter.com/8AJPjnXGbb

— Meghana (@GoingMeghana) May 13, 2020

You can reach directly to Meghana on Twitter.

There’s another NRI, Raam Chaware, who traveled from Newark (USA) to Mumbai on 10th May 2020 and quarantined in Pune has shared his experience here.

Major points to note.

• Check if you are an Indian passport holder. Currently, the travel is strictly allowed only for Indian passport holders. Maybe in the future, the Indian Government will start foreign and OCI cardholders.
• Check your body temperature. If you are above 99.0 F, you may lose your chance to travel.
• You have a genuine reason to travel back to India. If you don’t have a genuine reason, please leave the spot for others who are needy.