A ship leaves Kochi port for Yemen on Monday. (Press Trust of India photograph)
India has received permission to dock its vessels at Yemen's Aden harbor to evacuate nearly 4000 Indians who are stranded in the war-torn nation.
Already, naval off-shore patrol vessel INS Sumitra has entered the Aden harbour. Besides, INS Mumbai and INS Tarkash are enroute to Djibouti.
Two warships and two passenger liners are to rendezvous in the Arabian sea and move as a composite group to Djibouti.
Air India has also stationed two 180-seater Airbus A320 planes in Muscat for the evacuation.
The evacuation operation has been codenamed "Operation Raahat".
India plans to get its nationals by sea to neighbouring Djibouti, from where they will be brought back by air.
This morning, Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh flew to Djibouti to oversee the evacuation efforts. India has stationed five diplomats in Djibouti to help with the evacuation.
On Monday, India had shifted 400 Indians from Aden to Djibouti.
Later in the night, Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and assured full assistance in the safe evacuation of the stranded Indians.
Recounting the "strong and close relations" between the two nations, the Saudi monarch assured PM Modi of his "full attention" to the safety of Indians.
As the Saudi Arabia-led aerial bombing campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen entered the sixth day on Tuesday, many countries in south-east Asia, including Pakistan and China, have rushed their officials, aircraft and ships to evacuate their nationals.
The airstrikes are aimed at forcing Houthi rebels to hand power back to President Abed Rabbu Mansour Hadi. At least 40 people were killed on Monday and 200 others were wounded in an air strike at al-Mazraq camp in north Yemen.