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BSS-43
BANGLADESH-INDIA-FLIGHT
Dhaka starts 3rd phase repatriation flight from India
DHAKA, May 8, 2020 (BSS) – Bangladesh today started third phase of
repatriation flight operation from India by bringing back a fresh batch of
its stranded nationals home from Chennai by a chartered aircraft.
A chartered aircraft of US-Bangla Airlines landed at Hazrat Shahjalal
International Airport (HSIA) from Chennai carrying 162 Bangladeshi nationals
this afternoon,” HSIA director Group Captain AHM Touhid-ul Ahsan told media
here.
After repatriating more than 2000 stranded Bangladeshi from India through
14 chartered flights in two phases, Dhaka in coordination with Bangladesh
mission in Delhi has planed the third-phase to bring back the rest of the
Bangladeshis who have still been stuck in different Indian cities amid
nationwide lockdown there due to COVID-19.
Apart from today’s flight, eight more chartered flights have been planned
to operate from New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai to Dhaka
under the third phase.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines will operate flights from Kolkata on May 10, from
Mumbai on May 12, from Bangalore on May 13 or May 15 and from New Delhi on
May 14 while US-Bangla airlines will operate dour more special flights from
Chennai on May 9, 10, 13 and 14, a circular of Bangladesh High Commission in
New Delhi said earlier.
As per the government decision, all the returnee Bangladeshis would have
to be sent to a 14-day institutional quarantine under the management of the
Armed Forces Division (AFD) if they failed to show medical certificate at the
airport on their arrival here.
Bangladesh missions in India have kept their efforts on to facilitate the
return of more Bangladeshis, who are still stuck up in India.
Besides India, Bangladesh also repatriated stranded Bangladeshis from
Thailand, Singapore, Myanmar while more chartered flights have also been
planned to bring back Bangladesh nationals from the UK, the USA, Australia
and Malaysia within a week.
Meanwhile, India also today started repatriation of its nationals from
Bangladesh by taking back the first batch of 168 Indians, who had been stuck
here due to COVID-19 pandemic, though a chartered aircraft of Air India.
A statement of India High Commission here said, in the first phase, within
a week New Delhi will evacuate its stranded nationals from here through seven
chartered flights, carrying 170 passengers in each voyage, to Srinagar on May
8, 12, 13, to Delhi on May 9, 11, to Mumbai on 10 May and to Chennai on May
14 May.
On May 5, Bangladesh extended the ongoing ban on flight operation for the
fifth consecutive time till May 16 to and from all European countries and the
nations including India that restricted the entry of Bangladeshis to their
territories as well as on all domestic routes over the coronavirus scare.
Other countries, including the USA, the UK, Canada, Turkey, Australia,
Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Bhutan, Myanmar and different European countries
so far operated several special chartered flights amid the flight suspension
to repatriate their citizens from here.
BSS/ASG/TA/KU/2056 HRS