Rescue Ops: Air India to mount flights to Romania, Hungary
Darpan News Desk IANS, 25 Feb, 2022 01:23 PM
New Delhi, Feb 26 (IANS) As hostilities continue between Russia and Ukraine, the Tata Group-led Air India will mount direct flights to Romania and Hungary for bringing back stranded Indians.
Romania and Hungary share land borders with Ukraine.
Many Indian nationals, including students, have made their way into these countries from Ukraine.
Air India will operate two flights, one each from Delhi and Mumbai, to Bucharest (Romania) and Budapest (Hungary) on Saturday as special government charter flights.
These flights will be operated on Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft which have a capacity of 254 passengers per plane.
"Air India has always been playing a pivotal role, standing by the nation during any crisis and now, inspired by the common mission shared by the Tata group and AI of serving the nation & its people first," the airline said late on Friday night.
"Our employees are only too eager to respond to the call of our nation, driven by our values & conviction that 'if we don't do it then who will?'," it added.
Earlier, Air India was operating direct special flights to Kiev but it had to stop these operations due to a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) issued over the closure of the Ukrainian air space.
In fact, one of Air India's flight bound for Kiev from New Delhi returned to the national capital's IGI Airport after NOTAM was announced at Kiev airport on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the airline had carried out the first of its special flight operations ferrying Indian citizens from Ukraine.
Apart from Air India, other Indian operators were expected to start special flight services to Ukraine.
Last week, the Centre removed the restrictions on the number of flights and seats between India and Ukraine, evidently to facilitate the return of Indian students and professionals stranded in the east European nation due to the ongoing tensions with Russia.
India is in constant touch with the representatives of Afghan Sikh and Hindu communities, said the Ministry of External Affairs on Monday asserting that the country will facilitate repatriation to India of those who wish to leave Afghanistan.
Fearing attacks on the Indian community working with private companies in Afghanistan, the intelligence agencies have sent out alerts to them to be ready to be transported back to the country.
In the wake of the Taliban taking full control in Afghanistan, experts have cautioned the Indian security agencies to increase vigil on the international border with Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir.
Fairly widespread to widespread rainfall activity is also very likely over Gangetic West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Vidarbha during the next five days.
Almost a year after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case in connection with the blast at a Kabul gurdwara in which 27 people, including an Indian Sikh was killed, a team of anti-terror probe agency was yet to visit the country, and now with the Taliban takeover, this has been "delayed indefinitely".
Rahul Gandhi on Friday released a video statement slamming Twitter for blocking his account and alleged that Twitter was taking sides in the politics of the country.
