Govt has set up 24×7 control rooms to assist evacuation from Ukraine; India to operate 26 flights over next 3 days

March 1: Government of India has set up 24×7 control centres to assist the evacuation of Indian nationals stuck in Ukraine through border crossing points with Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovak Republic. India will operate 26 flights over the next three days to fly back Indian citizens who have moved from Ukraine to neighbouring countries, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla told reporters today after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting on the country’s evacuation efforts. Besides Romania’s Bucharest and Hungary’s Budapest, airports in Poland and Slovak Republic will also be used, he added.

Under the “Mission Ganga” plans, there are 46 flights till March 8, of which 29 will take off from Bucharest, 10 from Budapest, six from Poland’s Rzeszow, and one from Slovakia’s Kocise. The Air Force will operate one flight from Bucharest.

There were an estimated 20,000 Indian students in Ukraine when the government issued its first advisory. “From that number, approximately 12,000 have since left Ukraine, which is 60 per cent of the total. Of the remaining 40 per cent, roughly half remain in conflict zone in Kharkiv, Sumy area and the other half has either reached the western borders of Ukraine or are heading towards the western part of Ukraine… they are generally out of conflict areas,” the Foreign Secretary said.