[ad_1]
MUMBAI: Standing in queue for more than 35 hours in sub-zero temperatures near the Ukraine border without access to food, water or a toilet, surviving the blows and beatings of the Ukrainian troops, walking over 10 kilometres with bags through a frigid terrain-for the 182 Indian students who reached Mumbai on Tuesday morning onboard Air India Express flight from Bucharest, Romania, the past four to five days have been nothing short of a nightmare.
“About 2,000 Indian students are currently stranded at Bucharest’s Henri Coanda airport, trying to board flights to India. Another 3,000-odd students were stuck on the Ukraine side of the border it shares with Romania. The numbers would have gone up since I left,” said Dinanath Ray (21), a resident of Muzaffarpur in Bihar, one of the AIX passengers.
Saurabh Kumar from Darbhanga, Bihar, had travelled to Vinnytsia in west-central Ukraine five months ago. “About 150 Indian students have been holed up in a bunker in our hostel basement since February 24. We couldn’t move out to get supplies, air raid sirens went off every 15-20 minutes…,” he said. “The journey to Romania was even more nightmarish,” he said. It was only after they crossed into Romania that they came across humanitarian efforts. “The Romanians and Nato had put up shelters about 200 metre from the border and stocked it with food, water. We were given blankets, jackets, free SIM cards, car ride to the airport,” said Ray.
En route from Bucharest to Mumbai, the Air India Express flight did a fuel halt in Kuwait. “They offered us sandwiches, cakes, juices etc. But they served biryani and raita after take off from Kuwait. We polished off that first Indian meal in days,” said Kumar.
On Monday, Indian government decided that Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen (Retd) V K Singh will travel to countries neighbouring Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation of stranded Indians. While Scindia will handle evacuations from Romania and Moldova, Rijiju will go to Slovakia, Puri to Hungary and Gen (Retd) Singh will be in Poland. Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force is likely to deploy several C-17 aircraft as part of Operation Ganga.
The Air India Express flight IX-1202 landed at 7.40am. A Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) spokesperson said: “Of the 182 passengers, around 25 were from Maharashtra, 38 from Haryana, 34 from UP, 10 from Gujarat and the remaining 75 were from the rest of the country.”
“About 2,000 Indian students are currently stranded at Bucharest’s Henri Coanda airport, trying to board flights to India. Another 3,000-odd students were stuck on the Ukraine side of the border it shares with Romania. The numbers would have gone up since I left,” said Dinanath Ray (21), a resident of Muzaffarpur in Bihar, one of the AIX passengers.
Saurabh Kumar from Darbhanga, Bihar, had travelled to Vinnytsia in west-central Ukraine five months ago. “About 150 Indian students have been holed up in a bunker in our hostel basement since February 24. We couldn’t move out to get supplies, air raid sirens went off every 15-20 minutes…,” he said. “The journey to Romania was even more nightmarish,” he said. It was only after they crossed into Romania that they came across humanitarian efforts. “The Romanians and Nato had put up shelters about 200 metre from the border and stocked it with food, water. We were given blankets, jackets, free SIM cards, car ride to the airport,” said Ray.
En route from Bucharest to Mumbai, the Air India Express flight did a fuel halt in Kuwait. “They offered us sandwiches, cakes, juices etc. But they served biryani and raita after take off from Kuwait. We polished off that first Indian meal in days,” said Kumar.
On Monday, Indian government decided that Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen (Retd) V K Singh will travel to countries neighbouring Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation of stranded Indians. While Scindia will handle evacuations from Romania and Moldova, Rijiju will go to Slovakia, Puri to Hungary and Gen (Retd) Singh will be in Poland. Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force is likely to deploy several C-17 aircraft as part of Operation Ganga.
The Air India Express flight IX-1202 landed at 7.40am. A Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) spokesperson said: “Of the 182 passengers, around 25 were from Maharashtra, 38 from Haryana, 34 from UP, 10 from Gujarat and the remaining 75 were from the rest of the country.”
[ad_2]
Source link
