Vande Bharat: Not enough flights to Hyderabad, say stranded

HYDERABAD: As the government prepares to launch phase 3 of the ongoing Vande Bharat Mission — to bring back stranded Indians from across the world — hundreds of people, waiting to return to the city, have reached out to the authorities for help. Their primary grouse: majority of the special flights are routed to Delhi and Mumbai, with just a handful scheduled for Hyderabad.
Stuck in a foreign land, most of them either without a job or sufficient money, they have appealed for more connections to the city — desperate to be back home.A large number of them are also those facing medical emergencies or people who have lost family members, during the lockdown.
As per schedule, the third round of repatriation flights will operate between June 10 and July 1. From among the 300 odd services slotted under it, 34 (approx) will land in Hyderabad — some directly from its international destinations and others via Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kozhikode. There are also four outbound flights from Hyderabad planned under this phase to Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam.
“Several of our Telanganites are stuck in Qatar. As part of Vande Bharat mission, 38 flights are planned from Qatar to India of which only 1 flight is arranged to Hyderabad. I request your immediate help for more flights,” wrote Kiran Reddy.