New Delhi: The government is working on a mega plan to deploy a raft of naval ships as well as military and commercial aircraft to evacuate thousands of Indians stranded in the Gulf and other regions after the nationwide lockdown ends, official sources said on Wednesday.
The government has already reached out to several states asking them to make necessary arrangements for the Indians when they are brought back home under the multi-agency operation. The Civil Aviation Ministry has conveyed to the core group planning the operation that it is ready to make available majority of the nearly 650 commercial planes including freighters for the mission, the sources said.
They said the Navy and the Indian Air Force have also been told to keep some of their platforms on stand-by for the evacuation which is likely to be the biggest after ‘Operation Raahat’ when India brought back over 6,700 people, including citizens from 41 countries, from strife-torn Yemen in 2015.
The Navy has identified the INS Jalashwa, an amphibious ship, and two other landing ship tanks for the operation.
The INS Jalashwa, capable of carrying out amphibious operations as well as search and rescue missions, can transport over 1,000 people. Indian naval ships Mumbai, Tarkash and Sumitra were part of ‘Operation Raahat’. The sources said the Indian Air Force is also keeping a number of its transport aircraft ready for the operation. The operation will begin after the lockdown is lifted.
The current phase of the lockdown ends on May 3. It is not immediately clear whether the government will further extend the drastic measure.
The sources said that priority will be to evacuate the Indians from the Gulf nations following which the government will try to bring back those stranded in Europe and other parts of the globe.
It is not immediately clear how many Indians the government plans to bring back home.
As a matter of policy, India decided not to bring back the stranded Indians from abroad till the nationwide lockdown ends. (PTI)
