In order to scale up the ongoing evacuation efforts from Ukraine under Operation Ganga, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called on the Indian Air Force to join the evacuation efforts, sources told news agency ANI.
Indian Air Force is likely to deploy several C-17 aircraft from Tuesday onwards to evacuate Indians. The IAF is likely to deploy several C-17 aircraft as part of Operation Ganga.
"This will ensure that more people can be evacuated in a shorter time frame. It will also help deliver humanitarian aid more efficiently. Indian Air Force is likely to deploy several C-17 aircraft as part of Operation Ganga from today," sources told ANI.
Till now, only private Indian carriers were evacuating Indians from Romania and Hungary, countries with land borders with Ukraine on the western side, as the Ukrainian airspace had been shut since February 24.
India began evacuation of around 14,000 of its stranded citizens on February 26.
PM Modi is personally monitoring the situation and he has already chaired three high-level meetings till Monday evening.
The Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia is leaving for Romania and Moldova, Kiren Rijiju to Slovakia, Hardeep Singh Puri to Hungary and Gen VK Singh (Retd) will be going to Poland to oversee the evacuation of Indian nationals.
India began the evacuation of its citizens from Romania and Hungary - western neighbours of Ukraine - on Saturday after Russia launched a military offensive there.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi while presiding over a high-level meeting on Monday evening over the Ukraine crisis said that the entire government machinery is working round the clock to ensure that all stranded Indians in Ukraine are safe and secure, said Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.
This was the second high-level meeting chaired by the Prime Minister during the day over the prevailing situation in Ukraine. Government sources on Monday said that the 'Special Envoys' including Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen (Retd) VK Singh will travel to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate evacuations of stranded Indians amid ongoing Russian military operations in Ukraine.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.
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.
(With inputs from Agencies)
