An Air India flight with 46 nurses freed by Sunni insurgents in Iraq is set to arrive here on Saturday noon, officials said.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will receive the nurses at the airport, where a special immigration desk has been set up.

The Air India flight took off earlier from Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan, after the nurses were freed by the insurgents following intense Indian diplomatic efforts.

The plane will later go to New Delhi with some 70 other Indians, who were stranded in Iraq.