Operation Ganga faces hurdles as Romania shuts borders

New Delhi: 'Operation Ganga', a massive evacuation programme taken up by the Government of India to evacuate Indians stuck in Ukraine, is not an easy task. It managed to bring 907 students to India by operating three flights thanks to the cooperation of the Romanian Government which had opened its borders.

But on day four of the war between Russia and Ukraine that route seems to be closed as Romania had closed its borders. According to Foreign Secretary of India, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, the situation on the eastern borders continues to be risky. The Government of India has now asked Moldova, which is about 350 km from Ukraine to open its borders so that the evacuation can continue. Union Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar spoke to his counterpart in Moldova. The GOI is also in touch with Russian and Ukrainian Governments and has given the locations where Indians are stranded so that rules can be relaxed to evacuate them.

Indian nationals, who reached the Ukraine-Romania border and Ukraine-Hungary border, were taken to Bucharest and Budapest, respectively, by road with the assistance of Indian government officials so that they could be evacuated in these Air India flights.

As many as 688 Indian nationals returned to Delhi on Sunday from strife-torn Ukraine on board three Air India evacuation flights from Romanian capital Bucharest and Hungarian capital Budapest.

Following the Russian military offensive against Ukraine, India has brought back a total of 907 stranded citizens from that country since Saturday when the first evacuation flight from Bucharest with 219 people on board landed in Mumbai under Operation Ganga.

The second flight (AI1942) departed from Bucharest with 250 Indian citizens and landed at the Delhi airport around 2.45 AM on Sunday, officials said. With 240 Indian nationals on board, the third evacuation flight from Bucharest landed at the Delhi airport around 9.20 AM on Sunday, followed by another Tata Group-run carrier's flight from Bucharest with 198 Indian nationals at 5.35 PM.

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that approximately 13,000 Indians are stranded in Ukraine as of now, and the government is making efforts to bring them back as soon as possible.

Operation Ganga costs the Government over Rs 1.1 crore for a two-way evacuation flight. The cost could go up depending upon the duration of the flight. At present, the airline is operating the services with a wide-body Boeing 787 plane, better known as Dreamliner. The cost of operating a chartered flight with the Dreamliner is around Rs 7 lakh to Rs 8 lakh per hour and the total amount will depend "on where we are going and how far we are going". The total cost will include expenses related to crew, fuel, navigation, landing and parking charges.

Also, considering that these flights are for relatively long duration, there will be two sets of crew on board. Currently, Air India is operating flights to Bucharest (Romania) and Budapest (Hungary). They do not have scheduled services to these places. It is learnt that a Dreamliner on an average consumes 5 tonnes of fuel per hour. The government is not charging the rescued citizens for the evacuation flights.

Air India spokesperson said the carrier plans to send two more planes to Bucharest and Budapest on Sunday so that they can operate fifth and sixth evacuation flights but it is "all highly tentative".

Air India shared on Twitter photos of Scindia receiving the evacuees at the airport. The Indian Embassy in Ukraine said on Sunday that whenever curfew is lifted and people are moving around in a neighbourhood, Indian nationals are advised to use nearby railway stations to proceed towards western parts of the country. The western parts of the country are relatively conflict-free as of now. "The transportation mode of Railways is operational and safer…Ukrainian Railways is also operating special trains for evacuation of people free of charge on a first-come-first-serve basis at the railway station," the Indian Embassy in Ukraine noted. It said Indians should travel in groups and carry only essentials in a rucksack or a bag.