New Delhi: Under ‘Operation Ganga’, 2,135 Indian citizens returned back home on Sunday through 11 special civilian flights from Ukraine’s neighbouring countries.
Among the special civilian flights on Sunday, nine landed in New Delhi while two in Mumbai.
There were six flights from Budapest, two from Bucharest, two from Rzeszow and one from Kosice.
With Sunday’s evacuation, nearly 16,000 Indians have been evacuated since the special flights began on February 22.
“The number of Indians airlifted by 66 special civilian flights goes up to 13,852. Till date, the IAF has flown 10 sorties to bring back 2,056 passengers while taking 26 tonnes of relief load to these countries as part of Operation Ganga,” Union Ministry of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia said in a statement on Sunday.
On Monday, eight special flights are expected to operate from Budapest (5), Suceva (2) and Bucharest (1), evacuating more than 1,500 Indians back home.
Meanwhile, two Air India Express flights carrying Indian evacuees, mostly students from the war-torn Ukraine, reached here from Budapest and Bucharest via Kuwait, at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), an official said here on Sunday.
The flights IX-1202 (Bucharest) and IX-1602 (Budapest), each flew down 185 Indian nationals (total 370) who had crossed the borders to reach neighbouring Hungary and Romania, from where they took the flights.
The arriving passengers included a maximum 120 people from Kerala, Tamil Nadu (58), Andhra Pradesh (28), Uttar Pradesh (18), Rajasthan (17), Bihar (16), Maharashtra (15), Telangana (14), Haryana (13) and Delhi (10).
The rest are from Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Odisha, West Bengal, Punjab, Jharkhand, Puducherry, Meghalaya, and Jammu & Kashmir.
The CSMIA authorities had deployed special measures for the speedy exit and luggage clearance of the Ukraine evacuees, and following the Covid-19 protocols.