More than 17,000 Indians have been evacuated under 'Operation Ganga': Govt

On March 7 itself, 1,314 Indians were airlifted by seven civilian flights, the Ministry informed through a press statement.

As Indians are being evacuated from war-torn Ukraine, the Ministry of Civil Aviation informed that under 'Operation Ganga', 17,400 Indians have been brought back to date, since the special flights began on February 22.

These flights are operating from Ukraine's neighbouring countries as Ukrainian airspace has been shut since February 24 following a fierce Russian military offensive.

Indian citizens stuck are being airlifted once they cross over to neighbouring countries such as Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. Four Union Ministers- Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya M Scindia, Kiren Rijiju, and Gen (Retd) V.K. Singh have gone to these countries to support and supervise these operations.

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On March 7 itself, 1,314 Indians were airlifted by seven civilian flights, the Ministry informed through a press statement. The Ministry also informed that the number of Indians airlifted by 73 special civilian flights now stands at 15, 206.

"One C-17 IAF flight, with 201 Indians on board, is expected to arrive in the evening today. IAF had earlier flown 10 sorties to bring back 2056 passengers, as part of the Operation Ganga", the statement from the Ministry read.

Among the special Civilian flights today, four have landed in New Delhi while 2 reached Mumbai. One flight is expected late in the evening. There were 5 flights from Budapest and one each from Bucharest and Suceava.
On March 8, 2 special Civilian flights are expected to operate from Suceva, bringing in more than 400 Indians back home.

A day ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attributed the success of Operation Ganga to  India's growing influence in the global arena.

He said while big countries of the world are finding it (evacuation of people from Ukraine) difficult, "it is the growing influence of India that we have brought thousands of students back to our homeland". "We are evacuating thousands of Indians safely from the war zone through Operation Ganga".