No plans to evacuate Indians in Oman by ship

Muscat: Indian nationals in Oman will only be evacuated by planes and not by ships, for the time being, the Indian ambassador to the Sultanate has said.

“As of now, we are repatriating Indians from Oman using flights and no ship operations have been scheduled,” said Munu Mahawar. “In case a decision is taken to use ships for repatriation of Indians from Oman, we will make announcements.”

The first repatriation flight from Oman to India will leave from Muscat International Airport with around 170 passengers on Saturday. The first flight from Muscat will be bound for Kochi and is expected to take off at 1 pm on Saturday afternoon and land in India at 6:05 pm local time. The second will take off for Chennai at 12:25 pm on 12 May, and arrive in India at 5:25 pm.

The price of one-way tickets from Muscat to both Kochi and Chennai is about OMR 71. Air India has already started distributing tickets to the passengers following the request of the Indian embassy.

The mammoth seven-day exercise by the Indian government to bring back stranded expats from around the world begins on Thursday. National carrier Air India will operate 64 flights to evacuate Indian nationals during this period from all over the world. Currently, only two repatriation flights have been planned for Indians in Oman.