Operation Ganga: Air India Express brings 182 Indians back from a war struck Ukraine

The seventh flight of Operation Ganga, launched for evacuating stranded students in war-torn Ukraine reached Mumbai on Tuesday morning. This is notably the second chartered service of Air India Express that was sent to the Romanian capital Bucharest to bring back around 182 stranded nationals. The AI Express flight IX-1202 from Bucharest via Kuwait landed at the CSMIA runway in Mumbai at 7.40 AM, a government spokesperson said.

Second AI Expres flight from Romania reaches CSMIA today

Union MSME Minister Naryan Rane reportedly received the flight at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport Mumbai from Bucharest on Tuesday morning. As per reports, this is the second flight from Romania that has reached Mumbai in just 3 days of the 'Ganga Operation'. On Saturday, Air India had operated the first chartered flight to CSMIA from Bucharest with 219 Indian evacuees from Ukraine.

Till now, 1,396 Indian nationals have been brought back from Ukraine in six evacuation flights. According to reports, around 14000+ Indian nationals are stranded in Ukraine. The majority of these are students.

What is Operation Ganga?

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Amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis, the Union Ministry of External Affairs has launched rescue campaign 'Operation Ganga' with Tata Group's Air India airline to evacuate stranded students and nationals from the war grounds. The budget arm of the Tata airline, AI Express is running these operations, read reports.

Since Ukraine has blocked all air-corridors in wake of the Russian attack, Indian nationals are being brought home from the regions neighbouring west of Ukrain, including, Romania, Hungary and Poland.