New Delhi, February 11
Air India and Indian Airlines have been directed by the government to gear themselves up for possible evacuation of over 50,000 Indians from Kuwait in the event of possible attack by the USA on Iraq.
The directives have been issued following deterioration of the situation in the Gulf region and the USA threatening Iraq with possible action for its denial to hand over weapons of mass destruction. According to sources, the government has directed both Air India and Indian Airlines to be in a state of readiness for evacuation Indians working in Kuwait on as short a notice as of three days.
During Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait a decade ago, Air India had carried out a massive operation of evacuating Indian back home.
According to reports, Air India plans to operate one Boeing 747-400, one 747-Combi and two A-310s while the Indian Airlines has plans for operating about 11 flights a day by using two A-300s and three A-320s to evacuate the Indians.
The target for Indian Airlines is to carry about 2,000 passengers per day and for Air India about 1,500 passengers. The flights are to operate from Mumbai to Dammam and on their way back touch Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. Since there is no night landing facility at Kozhikode, it may not be used. The operation of an A-300 flight from Mumbai to Dammam and back is estimated to cost Rs 39 lakh and a A-320 flight almost Rs 23 lakh.
The possible operation to be undertaken may also affect the flight schedules of both the airlines, which may eventually lead to the cancellation of some flights.
Air India is also likely to consider the cancellation of flights to destinations like Paris, New Jersey, Frankfurt and Tokyo.
The sources said state-owned oil firms had also started maintaining high stocks of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) to meet contingencies like disruption in crude oil supplies in the event of war.
Oil firms in the country always maintain a peace-time jet fuel stockpile of 45 days in their tanks. India consumes about 180,000 tonnes of jet fuel per month.
The sources said these firms had already made advance contracts for sourcing crude oil from countries away from the conflict zone. India imports 7.55 million tonnes of crude oil from Saudi Arabia, 7.13 million tonnes from Kuwait, 5.96 million tonnes from the UAE and 4.7 million tonnes from Iran.
