Indian government has launched `Operation Ganga’ to rescue Indian, mostly students stuck in the war-torn nation Ukraine. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed four of his ministerial colleagues to go neighboring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuations of Indians.
Modi, while chairing a meeting over the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, decided to send four Union Ministers to Poland and Romania to oversee the evacuation of thousands of Indians, including students, who are still stuck there.
The ministers to be deputed are Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, and Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Puri, Minister for Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiradtiya Scindia, and and Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways and Civil Aviation General V K Singh . They are being heading out soon and will be visiting as Special Envoys of the Indian government, sources said.
Under ‘Operation Ganga’, Indians were first taken in batches from Ukraine to bordering countries (currently Hungary and Romania) via buses/commute arranged by the embassy. They were then airlifted to Delhi or Mumbai through chartered Air India flights.
Large diasporas of Indian Nationals (mainly students) have found themselves embroiled in the political turmoil being faced by the country. Direct evacuation of these stranded Indians through flights could not be carried out in view of the Notice to Airmen or Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) issued in Ukraine.
Accordingly, Indian missions in Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary have been making arrangements to get Indian nationals from Ukraine and fly them out of their respective countries under Operation Ganga Flights.
As on 28th February 2022 (till 12:00 Hrs), 5 flights (one in Mumbai and four in Delhi) carrying Indians from Ukraine have arrived in India carrying a total of 1156 passengers with none of the passengers kept under isolation so far.
The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare in close collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Civil Aviation and Ministry of Home Affairs is lending all support possible in evacuating Indians from Ukraine. It has revised mandatory International Travel Guidelines and on humanitarian grounds has allowed the following exemptions in the advisory for international travelers:
About 16000 Indian nationals are still believed to be stranded in the Eastern European country. The number of Indians stranded in Ukraine are reported to be anywhere between 16,000 to 20,000 with most media houses reporting them at 18,000. However, as of now, official government figure is 16,000.
The Ukrainian airspace has been closed for civil aircraft operations since February 24 morning when the Russian military offensive began. Therefore, the Indian evacuation flights are operating out of Bucharest and Budapest.
IndiGo also said it will operate two flights to Budapest via Istanbul on Monday and Tuesday from Delhi to bring back Indians. The first evacuation flight from Bucharest with 219 people on board had landed in Mumbai a day earlier under Operation Ganga and many of the returnees reached their home states.
