Operation Ganga mercy flight brings back 183 from Ukraine

Mumbai: Another 183 Indians, mostly students, arrived from war-torn Ukraine by an Air India Express flight from Budapest via Kuwait at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), an official said here on Saturday.

The flight IX-1603 includes a maximum of 40 persons from Kerala, besides 36 from Andhra Pradesh, 30 from Telangana, 28 from Tamil Nadu, and 11 from Maharashtra.

There are 8 persons from Bihar, 7 from Punjab, 5 each from West Bengal and Haryana, 3 each from Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, 2 each from Rajasthan and Odisha, and one each from Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.

The CSMIA authorities had deployed special measures for the speedy exit and luggage clearance of the Ukraine evacuees, and following the Covid-19 protocols.

Representatives of various states later took charge of their people to help them with their lodging-boarding or onward journey plans by trains or flights.