Third flight with 183 Ukraine evacuees lands in Mumbai
Darpan News Desk IANS, 03 Mar, 2022 12:57 PM
Mumbai, March 3 (IANS) An Air India Express flight from Bucharest, carrying 183 Indians from the war-torn Ukraine, landed here on Thursday, officials said.
The flight IX-1202 with 183 passengers, including an infant, arrived at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport at around 5.40 a.m.
The evacuees were received by Union Minister of State for Railways Raosaheb Danve-Patil with flowers and words of solace as they trooped out lugging their belongings.
Outside the airport, the returnees were given a warm welcome by their families, relatives and friends anxiously awaiting their arrival since midnight.
This was the third flight of evacuees in the past six days to Mumbai and a few more are expected to be operated this week as part of the Operation Ganga launched by India.
While one flight from Bucharest is likely to reach here at 1.50 a.m. on Friday, another is scheduled from Budapest the same day at 8 a.m., said officials.
Till date, Danve-Patil said around 4,000-5,000 Indians, mostly students have safely returned home and the operations will continue till all those stuck there are brought back.
Two terrorists and an associate have been killed in an encounter that began on Saturday morning in Awantipora, a city in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district. As of this writing, a search operation was still ongoing.
In India more than 23,000 people have, or have had, the new coronavirus, central health ministry data showed on Friday. More than 700 of those infected have died -- a dreadful total, but a relatively low number compared to fatalities in other countries facing outbreaks. India is currently under an extended lockdown til May 3rd that was imposed last month to contain the spread of the virus, which is mainly transmitted through respiratory droplets.
Two people have been arrested for attacking prominent journalist Arnab Goswami and his wife. A FIR has been registered at the NM Joshi Marg Police station. Goswami in his complaint to the police has alleged that he and his wife were attacked by Youth Congress workers when they were driving back home from the Republic TV Headquarters in Worli.
A "major digital transformation" is coming to a one of fastest developing countries in the world. Facebook is committed to "opening commerce opportunities for people across India", founder Mark Zuckerberg said this morning, a day after the social media powerhouse invested $5.7 billion in Reliance Industries Ltd-owned mobile telecom company Reliance Jio.
The men accused of killing three men in Palghar have been arrested and are in jail. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said on he has spoken to Union home minister Amit Shah and assured him that he would look into the case. More than 100 people are in custody. The attack took place at a spot close to Mumbai.
Covid-19 death toll has reached 507 deaths in India while confirmed cases surpassed 15,000. On Sunday 44 new cases of the novel coronavirus were reported in Rajasthan, while in Agra 45 more cases were confirmed. In Lucknow, 43 more people tested positive for the virus.
