New Delhi: Another batch of 331 Indians from strife-torn Libya arrived early on Tuesday, taking the total number of people evacuated by the four Air India special flights to 1083.
Air India flight AI-170 landed at the terminal-2 of Indira Gandhi International Airport here at around 4:30am, bringing 331 passengers, an airport official said. The plane took off from Tripoli airport at around 8:30pm IST.
Earlier, minister for civil aviation Vayalar Ravi said the third special flight with 226 Indians on board arrived here at around 1:30am from Libya.
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 stuck in the African nation, which is witnessing mass anti-government protests.
Three more planes -- two Boeing 747-400 and Airbus 330 -- left on Tuesday 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."
01/03/11 PTI/Times of India
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
0 comments:
Post a Comment