With Ukrainian airspace being shut for civilian flights amid the Russian attack, India is looking to evacuate its citizens from Ukraine to neighbouring countries through land-border crossings.
More than three decades ago, thousands of Indians were ferried in buses to Jordan from Kuwait, which was then under attack from Iraq, before they were flown to India, mostly by Air India.
The mass evacuation of Indians in 1990 from Kuwait, which also found a place in the Guinness World Records for the biggest evacuation by a civil airliner, might well provide an impetus for authorities as they explore ways to bring back Indian citizens stranded in Ukraine, which is currently under attack from Russia.
With the Ukrainian airspace being shut for civilian flights amid the Russian attack, India is looking to evacuate its citizens from Ukraine to neighbouring countries through land-border crossings.
Indian ambassadors in countries neighbouring Ukraine such as Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary have been asked to send teams from their missions to border areas with Ukraine to facilitate the exit of Indians.
By road from Kyiv, it will take over 16 hours to reach Hungary's border and at least more than seven hours to reach the borders of Poland and Romania. Similarly, it will take over 11 hours to reach the Slovakia border.
There were around 20,000 Indians in Ukraine and out of them, nearly 4,000 have returned to India in the last few days.
An Air India plane en route to Kyiv returned mid-way on Thursday, due to closure of Ukrainian airspace.
On February 22, Air India brought back around 240 Indians from Kyiv. Many people have also come back through flights operated by other carriers, including Ukraine International Airlines.
Apart from Kuwait, Air India has also operated flights to evacuate people from various countries, including Yemen, Lebanon, Egypt and Tunisia.
Jitender Bhargava, former Executive Director at Air India, told news agency PTI that more than 1.70 lakh people were evacuated from Kuwait in 1990.
"From Kuwait, people were taken in buses to Jordan and Air India operated flights to Jordan (Amman). From Jordan, people were taken to various parts of India...," he told news agency PTI.
At that time, Air India staff were stationed at a hotel in Jordanian capital Amman to issue tickets to Indians since the airline did not have operations to that city, Bhargava, who was closely involved in the efforts to evacuate Indians from Kuwait, said.
After the evacuation was over, it was Bhargava who checked with Guinness World Records to check about any existing record regarding evacuation of people.
"I wrote to the Guinness World Records so as to know what was the existing record of evacuation by a civil airliner. That is when they said, we don't have it and when we completed the thing, we wrote back to them and then, they recognised it as a world record... in terms of being the largest evacuation by a civil airliner... It remains the record," he said./ ndtv
