Operation Ganga: 80 flights, 24 ministers roped in to evacuate Indians from Ukraine

New Delhi, March 3: To further scale up evacuation efforts, the government has deployed 80 flights under 'Operation Ganga' to evacuate stranded Indians from Ukraine.

The government has also roped in nearly 24 ministers to monitor evacuation missions without any hiccups. Sources said the government had accelerated the evacuation plan for the Indians stranded in Ukraine. Also read | Ukraine-Russia crisis: Russian forces seize control of Kherson city; Kyiv wakes up to air raid alert Total flights ferry has been increased to bring more and more Indians. By March 10, a total of 80 flights will be pressed into service to evacuate the stranded Indians. These flights belong to the fleet of Air India, Air India Express, IndiGo, Spice Jet, Vistara, Go Air, and also planes from Air Force. The sources added that 35 evacuations had been planned from the Romanian capital city Bucharest, which included 14 flights of Air India, eight of Air India Express, seven of IndiGo, one of Spice Jet, three of Vistara and two of Indian Air Force. A total of 28 flights have been scheduled to take off from Hungary's capital Budapest. Among these 28, 15 flights are from Go Air, nine from IndiGo, two from Air India, one from Indian Air Force, and one from Spice Jet. A total of nine flights are scheduled from Rzeszow, Poland, which includes eight from IndiGo and one from Indian Air Force, while five flights will take off from Suceava, Romania and three flights will take off from Kosice, Slovakia. Sources said approximately 17,000 stranded Indians will be evacuated from Ukraine by these 80 flights, scheduled to take off from Budapest, Bucharest, and Rzeszow, Suceava, and Kosice. Also read | Russia-Ukraine war: SC tells Attorney General to talk to Centre for speedy evacuation of Indians students Till March 2, a total of 24 flights have landed under 'Operation Ganga'. The government started 'Operation Ganga' on February 26 to evacuate stranded Indians from Ukraine. The first flight carrying Indians landed in Mumbai on February 26 which was received by Piyush Goyal, Minister for Commerce and Industry, Textile, Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution. The Prime Minister has sent four ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia, Hardeep Singh Puri, Kiren Rijiju, and VK Singh to Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Poland to oversee the evacuation of Indians. The Modi government has also roped in ministers to monitor smooth evacuation and receive Indians at Delhi and Mumbai Airport who are coming from Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Poland under Operation Ganga. Ministers Jitendra Singh, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Rao Inderjeet Singh, Narayan Rane, G Kishan Reddy, Kailash Choudhary, Parshottam Rupala, Bhagwant Khuba, Virendra Kumar, Meenakshi Lekhi, V. Muraleedharan, Bhagwat Karad, Nisith Pramanik, Shantanu Thakur, Rao Saheb Danve, Darshana Jardosh, Devusinh Chauhan, Bharati Pravin Pawar, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, Subhas Sarkar, Kapil Patil have been assigned to receive the flights coming from neighboring countries of Ukraine carrying Indians. — PTC News