The ninth Operation Ganga flight from Bucharest carrying 218 Indian nationals landed in Delhi on Tuesday. Over the next three days, 26 flights have been scheduled to bring back Indian citizens apart from Bucharest and Budapest, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. He added that airports will in Poland and Slovak Republic will also be used for the purpose. What is Operation Ganga?
The Government of India had launched Operation Ganga to bring back stranded students and Indian students from Ukraine. The Government also sent four Union ministers – Jyotiraditya Scindia, Hardeep Singh Puri, General (Retired) Dr VK Singh and Kiren Rijiju – as ‘special envoys’ to oversee the evacuation efforts. While Scindia is in Romania, Kiren Rijiju is overlooking the evacuation efforts in Slovak Republic. Hardeep Singh Puri is in Hungary to coordinate and oversee evacuation of stranded Indians whereas General VK Singh is in Poland. The Ministry of External Affairs activated a dedicated Twitter handle -- @opganga – to share information and updates regarding the ongoing rescue ops.
Operation Ganga flights External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that six flights carrying 1,377 Indian nationals stranded in Ukraine have departed for India in the last 24 hours under Operation Ganga. These include first flights from Poland. The Union government has also deployed around 20 flights from Air India, Air India Express and SpiceJet. Air India flights have the capacity of carrying 250 passengers while Air India Express flights can carry 180 passengers. While IndiGo planes can carry 216 passengers on board, SpiceJet has the capacity of carrying 180 passengers. Besides, the Indian Air Force will also fly the C-17 Globemaster aircraft to evacuate stranded Indian nationals. Three more IAF aircraft are scheduled to visit Poland, Hungary and Romania to bring back Indians from Ukraine today. one C-17 Globemaster took off at 4 am today for Romania under Operation Ganga. Operation Ganga helpline numbers
The MEA also shared a lowdown of 24x7 helpline numbers and WhatsApp and email contacts for Indian nationals and students stranded in Hungary, Poland, Slovak Republic and Romania on this Twitter handle. “24x7 Control Centres set up to assist in the evacuation of Indian nationals through the border crossing points with Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovak Republic,” the tweet read.
How many Indians are stuck in Ukraine? Shringla stated, “We had an estimated 20,000 Indian students in Ukraine at the time that we issued our first advisory. From that number approximately 12,000 have since left Ukraine, which is 60 per cent of the total number of our citizens in Ukraine.” He further added that of the remaining 40 per cent, nearly half remain in conflict zones in Kharkiv, Sumy area and the other half have either reached the western borders of Ukraine or are heading towards the western part of Ukraine – they are generally out of conflict areas. (With agency inputs)
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