Operation Ganga: PM Modi asks IAF to join ops as India steps up evacuation efforts

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked the Indian Air Force to join India's operation Ganga, a move aimed at facilitating the safe evacuation of Indian citizens stuck in war-torn Ukraine.

According to news agency ANI, sources said that leveraging the capacities of the Air Force will ensure that more people can be evacuated in a shorter time frame, it will also help to deliver humanitarian aid more efficiently, sources added.

Indian Air Force is likely to deploy several C-17 aircraft as part of 'Operation Ganga' from today.

Operation Ganga

The Union government has launched 'Operation Ganga' to bring back stranded students and Indian citizens from the conflict-torn Ukraine. Special flights are being operated by Air India as part of the 'Operation Ganga' mission. On 24 February, Modi chaired a Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting in New Delhi on the Ukraine crisis.

Earlier on Monday, the Ministry of External Affairs said that India has evacuated over 8,000 nationals since the initial advisories were issued by the country. It was also informed that the six evacuation flight have landed in India bringing back around 1,400 citizens.

As per a report by NDTV, Russian forces continued their advance in Ukraine, shelling cities, India urged all its citizens to leave Ukraine capital Kyiv "urgently today, by trains or any other means available".

According to a report by Hindustan Times, the Indian Air Force is likely to deploy several C-17 aircraft as part of Operation Ganga from today. It is understood that the decision was taken during the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last evening.

During the meeting, Modi said that the government is working round the clock to ensure safety of Indians in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Indian embassy in Ukraine has issued a fresh advisory to the Indian nationals, asking them to leave Kyiv urgently, preferably by available trains or any other means, Hindustan Times said.

Opposition questions Operation Ganga

The Opposition has been attacking the Centre for 'not taking effective steps' and claiming Modi is 'missing in action' in bringing back Indians stuck in Ukraine after the Russian attack.

Sharing a video of a student stranded in Ukraine, Congress leader and Wayanad MP  Rahul Gandhi tweeted:

As per a report by NDTV, remarking that the estimated number of stranded students in Ukraine was only around 18,000, Yashwant Sinha - a foreign minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government - said it is "not a very large number compared to airlifts India has done in the past".

India, he pointed out, had evacuated 1,70,000 people from Kuwait between August and October 1990. The whole effort, he pointed out, was supervised by IK Gujral, the former Prime Minister, who was the foreign minister at the time.

Seven flights to land in Delhi tomorrow 

As many as seven flights will land in Delhi tomorrow carrying stranded Indians from Ukraine under Operation Ganga, the government sources told ANI on Tuesday. A total of nine flights have already brought back stranded Indian nationals from Ukraine.

The sources told ANI that the first flight of Indigo Airlines is taking off from Hungary's capital Budapest on Tuesday evening and will land at Delhi Airport at tomorrow 7:20 am. The Indigo flight has the capacity to carry 216 passengers. According to sources, flights will take off throughout the day from Budapest, Rzeszow, and Bucharest and will be landing at Delhi Airport tomorrow by late evening.

The Union government has deployed around 20 flights from Air India, Air India Express, Indigo, and Spice Jet. Apart from these airlines, the Airforce has also been asked to evacuate Indians from the neighbouring countries of Ukraine.

Air India flights have the capacity of carrying 250 passengers, Air India Express flights 180, while IndiGo planes can carry 216 passengers on board, ANI said in a report.

Spice Jet's special evacuation flight 

A special evacuation flight will depart from New Delhi to Kosice, Slovakia today to bring back Indians stranded in Ukraine. Union Minister for Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju will be on-board the flight, travelling as a special envoy of the Indian government to oversee the evacuation, ANI said in a report.

The SpiceJet flight is scheduled to depart at 3:30 PM from New Delhi and is scheduled to arrive in Kosice, Slovakia at 7.50 pm IST. The airline will use its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for the special flight. The aircraft will fly directly to Kosice from Delhi and will return via a technical halt at Kutaisi in Georgia. The aircraft is scheduled to return by 7.40 AM on 3 March.

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