Maha workers stranded in Sudan to reach India today

Kolhapur: A batch of 96 Indians, mostly from Maharashtra’s Sangli and Kolhapur districts stranded in Sudan, are set to return home on Wednesday.They were employed with the Kenana sugar factory, around 120km south of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. The conflict between the Sudanese military and paramilitary group in Khartoum, has prompted the Indian government to start evacuation of Indians from the African nation. Khartoum is witnessing a war-like situation due to the fight between military and paramilitary forces. They have been evacuated and are being brought back to India through Operation Kaveri.The workers from the factory located along the White Nile river had faced serious challenges though they were much away from the conflict area. They feared that the conflict might reach their place anytime. Tanaji Patil, a boiler engineer with Kenana Sugar Factory on Tuesday morning told TOI: “We had the problem of transportation. We finally reached Port Sudan by travelling around 1,200km. Now we will be ferried through the boats to Jeddah port of Saudi Arabia. From there we will fly to Mumbai on Wednesday morning.”He said, “We had to travel from Kenana Sugar Factory to Port Sudan with much caution and ensure that we didn’t go close to the conflict areas. The local residents helped us a lot. Ninety-six of us boarded buses to reach Port Sudan.”The district administrations of Kolhapur and Sangli are in continuous touch with them. They would reach their native places by Wednesday evening, an official said.