As part of Operation Ganga Mission, India has evacuated over 200 students and Indian citizens from Ukraine and brought them back to India.
Bhagwanth Khuba, Minister of State for Chemical and Fertilizers received the evacuees, most of them students, at Indira Gandhi International airport, New Delhi. The special Indigo flight landed in Delhi today morning.
Welcoming all the returnees, the Union Minister said that the Union Government is committed to ensuring the safe repatriation of all Indians from Ukraine.
He assured the students that their remaining friends and colleagues in the conflict zones will also be evacuated soon.
Students expressed gratitude towards the Union Government for their safe evacuation as they met their families.
A young student on the flight remarked, with tears of joy, the safe evacuation from a war strife country is no miracle and thanked the government for making it possible.
What is Operation Ganga?
Operation Ganga is a massive rescue operation undertaken by the Indian government to bring back Indian citizens stranded in Ukraine. Ministry of External Affairs, in close coordination with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, is making all efforts to bring the Indian students back to India at a fast pace.
The evacuation process, which began on 22nd February, has brought back over 6200 persons so far, including 2185 persons coming today through 10 special civilian flights.
Four Union Ministers- Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Shri Jyotiraditya M Scindia, Shri Kiren Rijiju, and Gen (Retd) V.K. Singh have gone to countries adjoining Ukraine to support and supervise these operations.
Indian Civilian planes as well as Indian Air Force planes are regularly bringing back stranded Indian students. Indian Airlines are putting their resources in a faster evacuation process.
Air India, Air India Express, IndiGo, and SpiceJet have all joined the Operation Ganga mission and are operating multiple flights from Ukraine’s neighboring countries to Delhi and Mumbai.
The number of civilian flights is being scaled up further, and more than 7400 persons are expected to be brought through special flights in the next two days. 3500 persons are expected to be brought back tomorrow and over 3900 on 5th March.