As Ukraine closed its airspace for civilian flights after Russia began it invasion, about 16,000-strong Indian diaspora, mostly students, were left stranded in the war-torn country.
As students made appeals for evacuation from bomb shelters, New Delhi launched a multi-pronged evacuation plan named ‘Operation Ganga’ to bring home its citizens.
Accordingly, Indian missions in Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary have been making arrangements to receive Indian nationals from Ukraine and fly them out of their respective countries under Operation Ganga flights. The cost will be borne by the Centre.
The cost of operating a two-way evacuation flight is reportedly more than Rs 1.10 crore. The amount is likely to go up depending on the duration of the flights.
24x7 Control Centres have been set up under the mission to assist in the evacuation of Indian nationals through Ukraine’s border crossing points with the four countries.
The government announced that four Union Ministers will travel to Ukraine’s neighbouring countries to coordinate the evacuation.
Petroleum minister Hardeep Puri would go to Hungary, aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to Romania and Moldova; law minister Kiran Rijiju to Slovakia and Minister of State for Civil Aviation VK Singh to Poland.
The government also created a dedicated Twitter account named OpGanga Helpline to assist in the evacuation by sharing important advisories and instructions.
The Union Health Ministry has revised the mandatory international travel guidelines for all Indians being evacuated from Ukraine, allowing them to board flights without a negative RT-PCR report or vaccination certificate.
The travel guidelines have been revised on humanitarian grounds.
Till Monday, Tata Group’s Air India reportedly evacuated 1,396 Indian nationals in six evacuation flights that were chartered by the government. The airline used Boeing 787 Dreamliners for the services.
The first flight under Operation Ganga brought home 219 Indians from Romania’s capital Bucharest to Mumbai on Saturday evening. Other flights carried up to 250 Indians each from Bucharest as well as Hungary’s Budapest back to India.
Operation Ganga gained speed after SpiceJet, Air India Express and IndiGo joined the mission operating special flights to Bucharest and Budapest from Monday. Indians who have been able to flee Ukraine and enter its bordering countries have been leaving on the evacuation flights.
IndiGo operated the flights using its Airbus A321 aircraft, whereas SpiceJet deployed Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes.
 "What is Operation Ganga?")
