The second phase of repatriation of Indians stranded overseas will begin on May 15 and will include new areas, mostly across Eurasia.
To reach out to a wider geographical spread, this phase of repatriation will use feeder flights in the hub-and-spoke model to bring the stranded Indians to the main port of embarkation of the special Air India service.
As of date, 67,833 requests for repatriation have been registered at Indian missions. Many — 34 per cent — are from students. This is followed closely by migrant workers who make up 30 per cent of the requests with a cumulative figure of 15,815.
More than a quarter of the requests are from people hailing from Kerala (25,246) — primarily on account of their concentration in the Gulf — followed by Tamil Nadu (6,617), Maharashtra (4,341), Uttar Pradesh (3,715), Rajasthan (3,320), Telangana (2,796), Karnataka (2,786), Andhra Pradesh (2,445), Gujarat (2,330) and Delhi (2,232).
Though the number of Indian nationals who registered with their respective missions was several times 67,833 — the Gulf alone had over three lakh registrations — many opted out in view of the conditions specified by the Indian government, including the mandatory 14-day quarantine.
The hub and spoke model will be applied both overseas and in India to get passengers from distant cities to a central point for boarding the Air India flights and also to drop off people to a point nearest to their homes for quarantine.
Some disembarkation points have been chosen by states keeping in mind quarantine requirements. Bihar has opted to have its natives land in Bodhgaya as there are enough hotels there to double as quarantine centres.
