Thursday, February 3 2005 12:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Indian airlines yesterday (Feb 02, 2005) operated three flights to Kathmandu to bring back stranded passengers from Nepal, which partially opened its airspace after a day's closure following the sacking of the Sher Bahadur Deuba Government.

One of the Indian Airlines flights landed at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi at 16:45 hrs (IST), carrying around 150 passengers, mostly Indian citizens, who had been stranded for the whole day after all flights were suspended and the airspace closed by Nepalese authorities.

"It was a harrowing experience for us as all modes of communication, including mobile phones and Internet, were down, creating total confusion," said S M Jagota, a Ludhiana based businessman who arrived in Delhi by IC-814 flight.

"All along the road, one could see gun-wielding Armymen patrolling the streets. With all communication disrupted, many rumours were afloat, and all of us were very much concerned about our safety," he said.

However, most of the passengers who returned from Nepal said that the situation was now more or less normal, even though communication has not yet been restored.

"Many of the shops and markets were open and traffic was more or less normal, but a sense of insecurity still prevails among the people," said Vineet Mundhra, a Bikaner based entrepreneur who was in Nepal for the past four days on a business trip.

However, things were much different on Tuesday (Feb 01, 2005), say passengers, as most of them tried to get the first available air-ticket to India, but had to return disappointed hearing the news that all flights had been suspended.