According to a news report in the Indian Express, a ship anchored in the Red Sea in Egypt is expected to evacuate the first batch of 1, 000 Indians from Libya on Friday.

The ship will use Alexandria port as an evacuation point.  This will be followed by three more ships, one of which will reach on Thursday. The daily has attributed this development to sources in the government.

Each ship has a capacity of 800-1,000 passengers.

Indian citizens will be picked up from Tripoli and Benghazi and will be dropped at Alexandria in Egypt. From Egypt, special planes will fly them back to India.

Sources have told the daily that six Air India planes and four IL-76 planes, are on standby for this purpose. The Indian embassy has sought permission to land at three airports in Libya, but is yet to receive a confirmation.

External affairs minister S M Krishna said on Wednesday that though the government has not set any time frame to bring back all Indians from Libya, the government would take every step to bring them back at the “earliest possible time”.

“It is an extremely difficult proposition to spell out time frame,” he said while replying to the questions by the members of the Rajya Sabha.

Making a suo motu statement in the Lok Sabha, Krishna said the government was closely monitoring the situation in Libya, Yemen and Bahrain and inter-ministerial meetings have been held to take stock of the situation in the region.

“I have personally been in touch with our ambassadors in these countries and have conveyed that all measures should be taken for the safety and welfare of our nationals there,” he said.

Related story (PTI): 

Govt ready to evacuate all 18,000 Indians in Libya: Krishna

Amid deteriorating situation in Libya, Government today said it was ready to evacuate all the 18,000 Indians there and the first naval ship has already reached Egypt on way to Libya.

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said the government was closely monitoring the situation in Libya as also Bahrain and Yemen and inter-ministerial meetings have been held to take stock of the situation in the region.

Replying to clarifications by members in Rajya Sabha, he said that the Government is "not charging anybody" for evacuation.

Making suo motu statement in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and replying to clarifications, Krishna said all Indians in Libya are "safe as of now".

"We will do everything that is possible to evacuate all Indians safely," Krishna said.

Listing the steps taken by the government to evacuate the Indians, he said that one ship has already arrived at Egypt and it would be reaching Libya to bring back Indians.

He also said as one ship could carry about 800-1,000 people, the Government would have to think of a large scale operation than merely sending two ships. "Ships are being lined up for evacuating them."

Krishna, however, did not given any time frame for bringing back all Indians, saying, "It is an extremely difficult proposition to spell out time frame."

But, he quickly added that the Government would take every step to bring them back at the "earliest possible time".

Earlier, BJP member Tarun Vijay had raised this issue saying Indians evacuated from Egypt were made to pay double the normal air fair.