Operation Ganga: Seventh flight on way to Bucharest, to bring home 182 Indians
India has sent a seventh evacuation flight to bring back stranded nationals from war-torn Ukraine. An Air India Express aircraft departed from Mumbai at 1.50pm today, and is scheduled to land in Romania’s capital Bucharest at 6.15pm local time (9.45pm IST).
The flight is expected to repatriate as many as 182 Indian nationals. It will take off from Bucharest for the journey to India at 7.15pm local time (10.45pm IST), and arrive in Mumbai tomorrow (March 1) at 9.30am.
The evacuation flight has been sent as part of Operation Ganga, the Indian government’s mission to bring back its stranded nationals from Ukraine in the aftermath of Russia’s offensive in the east European nation. On Sunday, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) set up an independent Twitter handle and 24×7 control centres for the evacuation purpose.
As Ukraine has shut its airspace due to the conflict with Russia, India is currently evacuating its nationals by moving them via land routes to the east European country’s neighbours – Romania, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia – and then flying them out from there.
Six flights under Operation Ganga have so far been arranged by the Indian government for the repatriation process. Five have returned to the country, bringing back a total of 1,156 Indians from either Bucharest or Hungary’s capital Budapest.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar has been sharing updates of all the flights on Twitter.
Earlier in the day, he said the sixth flight had departed from Budapest with 240 Indian nationals on board. It is expected to land in Delhi tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to send four ministers to Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Slovakia, and Poland to handle the evacuation of Indians from there.
Union law minister Kiren Rijiju will head to Slovakia, aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will manage Moldova and Romania, petroleum and housing minister Hardeep Singh Puri will go to Hungary, while minister of state (MoS) of road transport and highways VK Singh will look after evacuations from Poland.
The ministers will leave tonight for the mission.