300 stranded NRIs from Australia to fly back to Sydney today

Australian High Commission has been operating repatriation flights from April 11.

Around 300 Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) living in Australia, who were stranded in India, will fly back to Sydney in a special chartered flight from New Delhi on Tuesday.

Thermal screening of US nationals being conducted in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, at Hyderabad International Aiport. (PTI/Representative Photo)

Pricebeat, a private company, arranged for the aircraft and made the bookings for Singapore Airlines. They will leave from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport at 9pm.

However, this is not the first such flight to be operated between India and Australia following the nationwide lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from March 25.

The Australian High Commission has been operating repatriation flights from April 11. Evacuation flights for NRIs and Australians have been operated from cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi.

These evacuation flights were operated by airlines such as Qatar Airways and Lion Air.

As of April 29, 22,769 stranded passengers have been flown back to Australia.