Second AI flight with 237 Indians lands at IGI airport

New Delhi, Feb 27 (PTI) A second Air India flight with237 Indians from Libya landed early today at the IGI airporthere, taking the total number of evacuees from the troubledNorth African country to 528.

The Airbus 330 had left the Libyan capital at 8.30 PM(Indian time) for New Delhi.

The first batch of 291 people from Tripoli landed herelate last night in an Air India flight, which touched down atthe Indira Gandhi International Airport after a nearly 8-hourflight from the Libyan capital.

Minister of State for External Affairs E Aahmed andForeign Secretary Nirupama Rao had received the passengers whowere helped by Resident Commissioners of 12 states, includingKerala, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and officials of ExternalAffairs and Overseas Indian Affairs Ministries at the T2International terminal.

Apart from these, 15 corporate houses, which havetheir units in Libya, have been asked to help the arrivingIndian nationals, the officials said, adding adequate numberof buses and taxis have been made available.

The total number of Indians in Libya is estimated tobe 18,000.

The Ministry of External Affairs and DelhiInternational Airport Limited made arrangements for thearriving passengers in the in-operational Terminal 2.

Telephone facilities and railway reservation counters,apart from Balmer-Laurie counter for booking in Air Indiaflight for onward journey, have been set up in the terminal.

In order to help the traumatised people, who arecoming back from civil war-like situation, doctors have beenavailable to counsel the evacuees.