The Odisha government has stepped up efforts to bring back Odia students trapped in war-torn Ukraine.

It has nominated four eminent personalities from different walks of life to work as special representatives of the Odisha government and help in the evacuation process by coordinating with the Centre.

So far, 199 Odia students have returned to Odisha.

In a notification issued on Thursday night, the state government said: “Owing to the crisis prevailing in Ukraine, a number of people, especially students from Odisha, are still stranded in war-torn Ukraine and need to be evacuated. Also, a number of student citizens from Odisha have crossed over to neighbouring countries like Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia from where they are being evacuated by the ministry of external affairs, Government of India, by special flights.”

The order, duly signed by chief secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, said the state had decided to nominate representatives to coordinate the evacuation process. “They will work in co-ordination with the Resident Commissioner (based in New Delhi) and the respective countries and ensure smooth evacuation of students and NROs from Ukraine, especially from border location with neighbouring countries.”

According to the order, vice-president of KIIT University and KISS University (International Relation), Dwiti Vikramaditya, has been deputed to coordinate for evacuation from Poland and will also look after the overall co-ordination.

Arushi Ray, senior TDPS (talent development and performance section) officer, Global Learning and Development Centre of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, will be in charge of Hungary. Baishali Mohanty, UN policy officer, world food programme (Rome), will co-ordinate from Romania. Anurag Patnaik, a consultant based in Hungary, will be in charge of Slovakia.

According to the order, resident commissioner’s office, New Delhi will be nodal office for the purpose. The entire expense for evacuation will be borne by the Odisha government from the chief minister’s relief fund.

Kuhu Patnaik, a medical student of Kharkiv National Medical University, thanked the Naveen Patnaik government for arranging bus service and bearing all the travel expenses.

Another student at the university, Jyoti Prakash Behera, sent a message thanking the chief minister for his effort to rescue them. “My heartfelt thanks to our chief minister Naveen Patnaik from me and my fellow friends for evacuating Odisha students from Kharkiv by a special bus in this critical situation” he said.

On the other hand, a batch of students who were on their way from Pesochin to Lviv have been asked to move to Ternopil from where they would be evacuated to India from the Romania border.

“The situation is tense. Our evacuation plan has been changed. We are now proceeding to Ternopil from Lviv and hope to move out from Ukraine using the Romanian border,” Nishtha Shree Moharana, a student of Aerospace Engineering at Kharkiv Aviation Institute, National Aerospace University, told her parents over phone from Ukraine.

Nearly 451 students from Odisha were in Ukraine when Russia launched strikes against the country on February 24.