Overseas Indian Affairs and Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi said in the Lok Sabha that all the arrangements have been made to bring Indian citizens back from Libya.
The government had pressed into service six aircraft besides ships to bring back the Indians and facilitate free onward journey of the evacuees to their final destinations in the country, he said.
Three Air India planes have been pressed into service and even aircraft of private airlines have been “summoned” for evacuation process.
Air India, which has special permission to land in Tripoli, is operating flights directly to and from the Libyan capital where 8,000-10,000 Indians are based, Ravi said.
Private airlines, which do not have permission to land in Tripoli, are operating out of Alexandria, he said adding that more flights would be operated if necessary.
As some of the parliamentarians pointed out that the evacuees would be penniless after reaching India, he said they are being given free air tickets for onward journey to their homes, if the distance is more than 500 km. At this point, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee assured that the railways will ferry the evacuees free of cost from the airports to their final destination.
In Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs Parneet Kaur said in a statement that over 9,200 of the 16,000 Indian nationals stranded in Libya would have been evacuated from there by Friday night.
“We expect to complete the exercise of evacuating all those desirous of leaving Libya by March 10,” she said.
A passenger ship Scotia Prince will reach Benghazi on Saturday morning after dropping the first batch of 1,188 Indian nationals to Alexandria in Egypt on Thursday night. Passengers dropped by it have already reached Delhi and Mumbai in Air India special flights, she said.
Another passenger ship Red Star One was on its way to Misurata and Sirte to take Indian nationals to Malta from where they would be brought back in special flights from Valletta, she added.
An air bridge will be established between Sehba and India from Friday night and 2,000 Indians would be evacuated from there in the next five days.
A passenger vessel is reaching Benghazi to pick 750 Indian nationals who reached there from Kufra in Southern Libya by land route. A large number of Indian nationals have crossed the Libyan border into Tunisia and Egypt and are being assisted by the Indian Embassy officials there, she said.
While an IL-76 aircraft has been positioned in Cairo to undertake possible evacuation operations from Libya and a second aircraft is also being kept in readiness, two Navy warships - INS Jalashwa and INS Mysore - are also expected to be there by March 8 to assist in evacuation of any Indian who might still be in the coastal towns of the country.