In a bid to further scale up the evacuation efforts, nine flights will take off on March 4 from neighbouring countries of Ukraine with stranded Indians under 'Operation Ganga', the government sources toldon Tuesday.
A total of 16 flights have already brought back stranded Indian nationals from Ukraine till today.
Sources toldthat the government has accelerated the evacuation plan for the Indians stranded in Ukraine. Total flights ferry has been increased to bring more and more Indians. By March 4, a total of 36 flights are scheduled to evacuate the stranded Indians. These flights belong to the fleet of Air India, Air India Express, IndiGo and Spice Jet.
Sources also toldthat the first flight taking off on March 4 from the Romanian capital Bucharest is IndiGo at 2:30 hours and the landing is scheduled at Delhi Airport at 2:30 am on March 4. IndiGo has a capacity to carry 216 passengers on board. Six flights are from IndiGo, and the rest belong to Air India, Air India Express and Spice Jet.
Sources also stated that approximately 1800 Indians will be evacuated from Ukraine by these nine flights, scheduled to take off from Budapest, Bucharest and Rzeszow.
Air India flight is taking off on March 4 from Bucharest at 5:30 pm and landing is scheduled at Mumbai Via Kuwait at 6 AM on March 4. All other flights will arrive at the Delhi airport.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has also been pressed in the evacuation exercise after Prime Minister chaired the third high-level meeting on the Ukraine-Russia crisis.
Two Indian Air Force aircraft took off for Romania and Hungary from the Hindon airbase to bring back Indians stranded in Ukraine today. Indian Air Force aircraft are carrying tents, blankets and other humanitarian aid.
Three more Indian Air Force aircraft are scheduled to take off for Poland, Hungary and Romania today to bring back Indians from Ukraine. One C-17 Globemaster took off at 4 am earlier today for Romania under 'Operation Ganga'.
External Affair Minister S Jaishankar today in a tweet said that six flights have now departed for India in the last 24 hours, including the first flights from Poland, with 1377 more stranded Indian nationals from Ukraine.
( With inputs from ANI )
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