A special flight under the Vande Bharat Mission will bring back 178 Indians, who had been stranded in Dubai during the coronavirus pandemic, back to Amritsar.
They will land at Shri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport (SGRDJI) around 8pm.
An official of ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) said one of the flights will land in New Delhi and the other in Amritsar.
The Delhi-bound flight is likely to bring 241 passengers and four infants while the Amritsar-bound flight will bring 178 ‘distressed Indians’.
On Wednesday, under the Vande Bharat Mission, five flights from the Gulf will bring around 900 distressed Indians.
Two flights from Kuwait scheduled for Ahmedabad and Kozhikode will bring 330 people.
A flight from Jeddah to Calicut will bring 149 people. Another flight to Delhi has been rescheduled for tomorrow due to operational reasons.
An official said priority was being given to workers in distress, elderly people, sick, pregnant women and others stranded in difficult situation.
Only those found asymptomatic will be allowed to board the flight, he said.
Amritsar additional deputy commissioner (ADC-general) Himanshu Agarwal said they have identified hotels in the city to quarantine passengers returning from Dubai.
“We will give them an option between hotels, requirements and facilities, as per the government’s direction,” Agarwal said.
“They will have to incur the cost for their stay in hotels,” he said, adding that the passengers who will not be able to pay the rent will be taken to government quarantine facilities.
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