Mission Accomplished! Thank you EAM Sushma Swaraj, #IndianStrandedinNepal evacuated successfully
Simikot, July 7: Mission evacuation has finally seen the day of light with 1430 stranded pilgrims being airlifted from Simikot and Hilsa to Nepalgunj and Surkhet. The Indian Embassy evacuated pilgrims by engaging 21 flights, 2 private choppers from Simikot to Nepalgunj and Surkhet. The embassy’s team continues to station at the place in order to monitor the situation.
Once again in a major victory with India, almost 1500 Kailash Mansarovar Pilgrims stranded in Hilsa and Simikot, Nepal, the Embassy of India in Kathmandu swiftly fixed rescue operations since Monday, 2nd July 2018 to help facilitate the evacuation of the stranded pilgrims to safer locations in Nepal. On humanitarian situation, the Indian embassy has accomplished their promises.
The Embassy deployed and dispatched its officials and representatives, as part of the rescue operations, with medicines, in all the affected areas i.e. Hilsa, Simikot, Nepalganj, and Surkhet to facilitate possible assistance, including medical check-ups of elderly and ailing pilgrims. The Embassy also arranged bus services to ferry evacuated pilgrims from Surkhet to Nepalgunj.
An Emergency Control Room, with contact numbers of Embassy Officials, has also been functioning 24x7 since 2nd July to cater the need of the stranded pilgrims and their family members’ queries. The Emergency Control Room is equipped with 8-member multilingual personnel [Hindi/English/Tamil/Telugu/ Kannada/Malayalam language speakers] to avoid language barriers.
With concrete efforts by the embassy, as on July 6 evening, 1225 stranded pilgrims were airlifted from Simikot to Nepalgunj and Surkhet. Likewise, the Embassy also worked with tour operators to airlift around 675 stranded pilgrims at Hilsa to Simikot for onward evacuation to Nepalgunj and Surkhet.
During the evacuation process, 74 commercial flights were operated and the Embassy additionally pressed in private Choppers MI-16 along with Nepal Army Helicopters that made more than 142 sorties in the difficult terrains of Hilsa-Simikot-Nepalgunj sectors.