: The evacuation of first batch of Indian nationals from Iraq by an Air India plane has cost the government approximately Rs. 1.2 crore according to officials involved in the evacuation process.
The special Air India flight, a wide body Boeing 777 LR landed in Mumbai on Saturday morning with 183 evacuees including 46 nurses and would head for Hyderabad and Kochi to drop those who have been airlifted from war ravaged regions of Iraq.
The aircraft will cover a flying distance of 15 hours including 9 hours international flight before reaching its home base of Delhi.
It has cost Air India Rs. 8 lakh per hour of flight including parking, landing, navigation and other charges, according to officials.
The estimated Rs. 1.2 crore will be reimbursed to Air India by Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
This is only the flight cost.
Apart from this the Central government had put enormous efforts for the release of the nurses and others from the conflict zone. This may have cost substantial amount, officials said.
Air India is likely to operate more such flight for evacuation depending upon requirement.
Prior to this the national carrier had evacuated thousands of Indians from war zones in the Middle east and elsewhere.