New Delhi, Mar 1: Almost 20 per cent of an estimated 18,000 Indians in Libya have been evacuated even as the government received landing clearance for 3 special flights daily from India to Tripoli up to March 12, extending the March 7 time period.
"Arrangements have since been finalized with Libya to receive three special flights daily from India at Tripoli over the next ten days. In addition, we are exploring possibilities of establishing air bridges with Sirte and Sebha in Libya. This should appreciably speed up the process of evacuating our nationals from Libya," the Ministry of External Affairs said here today.
It said the ship Scotia Prince, which had docked at Benghazi yesterday, is setting sail for Alexandria, Egypt, around noon (local time), with an estimated 1,188 Indian nationals on board.
21 more Indian nationals crossed over to Salloum (Egypt) yesterday by road and have been moved to Cairo and they will leave for Mumbai by Gulf Air, along with 85 other Indian nationals who had in the same way reached Cairo, it said.
"Almost twenty per cent of our 18,000 people have been evacuated out of Libya," Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao tweeted.
"Have recd (received) clearance for 3 - three- of our flights per day to Tripoli frm tomorrow till 12th March," she said on Twitter yesterday.
Reacting to the criticism that India was not as swift as China in evacuating its citizens, Rao said "we are not in competition with China here. We're focused on the task of bringing back our people safe and sound. Pl (please) let's not devalue this."
She also said "we have evacuated over 3,000 out of Libya by now. Some have returned home, others on their way."
A total of 557 Indians returned home in two batches by air from strife-torn Libya in the wee hours today taking to 1,083 the total number of people evacuated so far by the four Air India special flights. The fourth Air India flight( AI-170) landed at Terminal 2 of Indira Gandhi International Airport(IGIA) here at around 4:30 am, bringing 331 passengers, an airport official said. The plane took off from Tripoli airport at around 8:30 pm IST.
The third special flight with 226 Indians on board arrived in the Capital a little earlier at around 1:30 am from the north African nation, Minister for Civil Aviation Vayalar Ravi said. Ravi, also the Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs,received the passengers of the third special flight, an Airbus 330, at Terminal 2 of the IGI Airport.
The AI-800 was originally a Jeddah-Mumbai flight, but it was converted into a special ferry aircraft and diverted to Tripoli to evacuate Indians who are stranded in Libya, which is rocked by massive anti-government protests that has left around 1,000 persons dead. Three more planes -- two Boeing 747-400 and Airbus 330 -- left this morning for Tripoli to airlift Indians who are still there. Ravi said 1,100 people have been evacuated from Benghazi and ferried by a ship to Alexandria in Egypt. "Out of 18,000 Indians, 10,000 are stranded in Tripoli," he said.
One of the passengers of the fourth flight Dinesh Kumar Sahni, working in Libya with a construction firm for two years, said "Situation in Libya is not good. The condition in Tripoli during day is normal, but it is not safe to venture out in night." But for Dinesh Diwedi, who is living in Libya for 27 years and presently working with the country's National Oil Corporation, "life is normal". He claimed that "no Indian was harmed", but feared "situation may get worse."
The first two special Air India planes had brought back 526 Indians. While the first flight evacuated 291 Indians from Libya and brought them back here on Saturday night, another Air India plane carrying over 235 people landed in the wee hours of Sunday.
Ravi praised the efforts of Indian embassy officials in Libya for helping Indians in getting out of the country and said his ministries are working in co-ordination with other ministries for evacuating Indians from Libya. "We are committed to bring back all the Indians stranded in Libya," he added. With Government intensifying the evacuation drive,nearly a third of 18,000 Indians in Libya would have been evacuated through air and sea by tomorrow. PTI
