Nur-Sultan, May 30: A special flight of national carrier Air India on Saturday departed from Nur-Sultan Airport, Kazakhstan, carrying as many as 132 Indians stranded in the central Asian country due to the coronavirus-induced global travel restrictions.

"Special Air India flight AI 1962 took off from Nur-Sultan today at 1215 hrs evacuating 132 Indians under #VandeBharatMission," the Embassy of India in Kazakhstan said on Twitter.

This was the fifth repatriation flight from Kazakhstan and the first from Nur-Sultan under the second phase of operations of Government of India's 'Vande Bharat' Mission which aims to evacuate stranded Indians home amid the lockdown. The fourth special Air India Flight evacuated at least 132 Indians from Almaty in Kazakhstan on Friday.

The previous three special flights operated from Karaganda city in central Kazakhstan. On Thursday, the Ministry of External Affairs said that India has a target to bring back 100,000 passengers from 60 countries by the end of Phase II of Vande Bharat Mission.

MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said as of today, 45,216 Indians have returned. These include 8,069 migrant workers, 7,656 students, and 5,107 professionals.

On May 26, the External Affairs Minister had a detailed review meeting of all stakeholders. The focus of the meeting was to ramp up the scale of Vande Bharat Mission and to enhance its efficiency.

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