A new bilateral travel agreement between Bahrain and India, operational since yesterday, will help more than 8,000 Indians return to Bahrain.
India last month announced that it was negotiating with 13 countries, including Bahrain, to establish a safe travel corridor to ensure the free flow of goods and people while keeping the Covid-19 pandemic in check.
The “air bubble” agreement will now allow the national carriers of both countries to operate specified number of flights between the nations carrying people falling into set criteria.
The Indian Embassy yesterday announced on its Twitter account details of the agreement – which it said was “operational”.
“We are happy to inform that both the governments have agreed to operationalisation of air bubble arrangement between India and Bahrain” it said.
Agreement
As per the agreement, any Bahraini nationals or residents can fly from India to Bahrain.
Any Indian holding any type of valid Bahraini visa, and destined to Bahrain only, can also fly into the country.
“It will be for the airlines concerned to ensure that there are no travel restrictions for Indian nationals to enter Bahrain with the particular visa category before issue of ticket or boarding pass,” added the embassy statement.
Indian nationals stranded in Bahrain and all Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card holders holding Bahraini passport and covered under Ministry of Home Affairs guidelines dated June 30, can travel from Bahrain to India.
“The designated airlines of both sides will be permitted to sell tickets between India and Bahrain in each direction through their websites, sales agents and global distribution system,” said the embassy.
Passengers were also guided to check with Air India Express and Gulf Air for ticket booking.
Meanwhile, Indian government civil aviation authority in a statement last night said there will be a cap of one flight per day for each national carrier.
It also noted that there will be a cap of 650 passengers per week or 2,600 passengers per month for each carrier on outbound flights (India to Bahrain).
“The time of arrival of outbound flights must schedule between 12am and 12pm Bahrain time,” it added.
There is no restriction on the number of passengers for inbound flights while a cap of one flight per date per carrier remains.
Indian Embassy first secretary Renu Yadav told the GDN that more than 8,000 Indians have registered to fly back to Bahrain while 40,000 of its nationals are on the list to go back to India.
Nearly 25,000 Indians have already returned to India on 78 special flights operated under Indian government’s ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ (VBM) and 68 chartered flights operated by clubs and associations.
“Over 40,000 Indian nationals have registered to travel from Bahrain to India under VBM,” Ms Yadav told the GDN.
“As per the data from registrations opened by the embassy to estimate the numbers of Indian nationals who want to travel to Bahrain, over 8,000 people have registered.”
Ms Yadav said registration for Indians to travel to and from Bahrain has been a “continuous process”.
“Around 12,500 Indian nationals have travelled from Bahrain to India via VBM flights,” said Ms Yadav.
“Additionally, around 12,000 have travelled by chartered flights.
“With special permission from Bahrain government, over 550 Indian nationals travelled from India to Bahrain on VBM flights.
“Around 500 have also come back to Bahrain on Gulf Air chartered flights.”
Marking the occasion of the 75th VBM flight on Wednesday, Indian Embassy second secretary Norbu Negi was at Bahrain International Airport (BIA) to see off passengers onboard Air Indian Express flight IX 1790 to Kannur, Kerala.
Milestone
“@IndiainBahrain achieves a milestone with 75th special flight under Vande Bharat Mission departing from Bahrain with 177 pax and three infants,” said the embassy on Twitter.
Including this, as many as 1,987 passengers flew home on VBM flights this month.
Yesterday Air India Express Flight IX 1172 from Bahrain to Delhi departed from BIA with 172 passengers and one infant, while IX 1376 to Kozhikode departed with 177 passengers and four infants.
On Thursday AI 1940 took 152 passengers and two infants to Delhi and on Monday IX 1974 took back 174 passengers to Hyderabad.
The GDN reported last month that a Gulf Air flight brought back stranded Indians from Kerala, of whom more than 90 per cent were those at risk of losing their jobs, or whose visas were about to expire. The first-of-its-kind operation was spearheaded by the Bahrain Keraleeya Samajam (BKS) in co-operation with Bahrain’s national carrier and officials from both the countries.
However, all subsequent “reverse repatriation flights” planned by the BKS, the Indian Club and others were put on hold since August 13.
raji@gdn.com.bh
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