New Delhi/Mumbai, Mar 2 : The evacuation of Indians from strife-torn Libya today picked up pace with 1,045 nationals returning home and another 1,050 people headed back on board three Air India flights even as private air carriers joined the exercise.
India has chartered four flights from Egypt Air to start bringing back 1,188 Indians, who have been evacuated by a ship Scotia Prince from Libya to the Egyptian Black Sea resort of Alexandria, from tomorrow, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao tweeted.
"1050 passengers boarded Air India flights at Tripoli this evening. No hitches. Everything proceeded smoothly," she said on the microblogging site Twitter, adding that the flights will reach Delhi tomorrow morning.Nearly 33 per cent of the estimated 18,000 Indians would be pulled out of Libya by tomorrow.
Three special Air India flights - two Boeing 747s and one Airbus-330 - went to Tripoli yesterday and brought back 1045 Indian nationals early today and another three flights were headed back home, External Affairs Ministry said.It said three daily flights to Tripoli shall continue over the coming days and may even be stepped up further.
Private carriers Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines said they will be flying to Djerba in Tunisia and Alexandria in Egypt respectively to bring back the Indians following instruction from the government.
With a large number of people reaching Egypt from Benghazi and other Libyan cities, the Kingfisher Airlines would operate special flight, an Airbus 321 with a seating capacity of 196, from New Delhi for Borg-el-Arab airport in Alexandria in Egypt."The flight would be leaving Delhi tomorrow at 1.30 AM," an airline spokesperson said.
Jet Airways would operate two Boeing 737-800 aircraft from Mumbai to Djerba in Tunisia for evacuation."The airline would operate a 170-seater Boeing 737-800 special flight each on March 3 and March 5 to Djerba, located in the Gulf of Gabes, off the coast of Tunisia, as per the directions of the Ministry of External Affairs," an airline spokesperson said.
Around 1,400 persons have reached Djerba where Indian Embassy personnel from Tunis have housed them in local hotels.
Flight JAI 8060 would depart Mumbai at 1600 hours tomorrow and arrive Djerba at 0420 hours (local time) the next day. On the return leg, flight JAI 8062 would depart Djerba at 0520 hours (local time) and arrive Mumbai at 2010 hours the next day.
Similarly, on March 5, flight JAI 8064 would depart Mumbai at 0900 hours and arrive in Djerba at 2120 hours (local time and on the return leg, flight JAI 8066 would depart at 2220 hours (local time) and arrive Mumbai at 1310 hours the next day.
Indian Air Force is also expected to fly an IL-76 aircraft, which can ferry 300 people, to Libya tomorrow to evacuate Indian citizens stranded there."An IL-76 is at the Palam airport and is expected to fly out to Cairo tomorrow morning on its way to Libya," IAF officials said here.However, the destination of the aircraft is not being disclosed keeping in mind the safety of the evacuees, they added.
After airlifting the nationals from a particular location in Libya, the IL-76 will drop them in Cairo.The IAF has kept another IL-76 in the stand-by mode and it could also be sent if there is any need to do so, the officials said. PTI
