480 students from Maharashtra set to return home on July 13
Mumbai: About 480 medical students from Maharashtra studying in Russia would be returning from a private chartered flight on July 13. More students are likely to fly back later as part of the largest private evacuation of medical students studying in Russia. “About 15,000 students from India are studying medicine in Russia and were unable to return home due to cancellation of regular flights over the past three months.
Around 4000 of them are still stuck up back there. A large number of students found it difficult to find seats in the few Vande Bharat flights that Air India operated from Russia since priority was given to people like senior citizens and pregnant women etc,” explained Nikesh Ranjan, director of Nix Tour India Pvt Ltd, who coordinated the chartered flights told thenews21.
Stating that this was one of the largest evacuation exercises from Russia, Ranjan said that he had already arranged six flights to evacuate over 2000 medical students from Ukraine. Ranjan is also in the process of organising chartered flights to bring medical students to Kochi (two flights with 320 and 330 batch of students), Delhi (three flights of 480 capacity), Chennai (480), Bangalore (227), Ahmedabad (320) and Jaipur (320).
“The main challenge in getting these students back was the lack of Vande Bharat flights, most of which operated for the gulf countries. Also, while private chartered flights were allowed from gulf countries, they weren’t allowed from Europe and Russia. So, we co-ordinated with Valsa Nair Singh, principal secretary of Civil Aviation department to allow chartered flights to help these students return,” said Sainath Durge, core committee member of Yuva Sena.
The batch of 480 students includes 57 students, who have completed their students and would be serving in Covid duty in Maharashtra soon, Durge said. Ranjan, a doctor himself from Russia, said he connected with students via social media and was helped by the Indian Embassy in Russia and Royal Flight, the Russian charter airlines, in this effort. For many parents like police constable Barku Akhadmal from Mira Road, the chartered flight is a huge relief
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Akhadmal is expecting his son 21-year-old Mangesh Akhadmal back from Russia on July 13. “My son just completed his third year in MBBS there. He completed his exams and other formalities before finding his way back home. The lockdown wasn’t strict in Russia and my son could move around in his hostel, cafe and even shop near his hostel,” said Akhadmal, who himself handled thousands of migrants on the highways recently in the course of his duty. Akhadmal hopes to catch a quick glance of his son at the airport before he is taken away to some hotel for quarantine on his return.
