Indian Navy Ships Enroute To Maldives To Evacuate Indian Citizens
05 May, 2020
The Indian Navy was directed to make suitable preparations for their evacuation by sea
NEW DELHI: Two Indian Naval ships are sailing towards Maldives to bring back Indians stranded there due to the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown, as part of India’s first phase of evacuation of citizens abroad.
The Indian Navy on Tuesday said that it has launched operation “Samudra Setu”, meaning sea bridge, as part of the national effort to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas. “Indian Naval ships INS Jalashwa and INS Magar are presently enroute to the port of Malè, Republic of Maldives to commence evacuation operations from May 8 as part of Phase-1,” the navy said.
The ships have been suitably provisioned for the evacuation operation. INS Jalashwa, the navy’s biggest amphibious assault ship that can carry a large body of troops with tanks was being prepared for this task since the past couple of days. The ship not only has a large space, but also has accommodation for a lot of people. Since her commissioning in 2007, INS Jalashwa has proved to be an extremely valuable acquisition for the navy. The ship has played major roles in amphibious operations, strategic sealift and HADR missions.
INS Magar, which is also an amphibious ship, can carry tanks and armoured personnel carriers for transportation to target beaches. The ship can also carry a strength of 500 fully laden troops for nearly 10 days, in addition to her own crew.
The evacuated personnel would be provided the basic amenities and medical facilities during the sea-passage. In view of the unique challenges associated with COVID-19 stringent protocols have also been stipulated.
The Indian Mission in Maldives is preparing a list of Indian nationals to be evacuated by the naval ships and will facilitate their embarkation after requisite medical screening. “A total of 1000 persons are planned to be evacuated during the first trip, catering for COVID-related social distancing norms vis-a-vis the carrying capacity and medical facilities available onboard,” the navy said.
The evacuated personnel will be disembarked at Kochi, Kerala and entrusted to the care of state authorities. This operation is being progressed in close coordination with ministries of Defence, External Affairs, Home Affairs, Health and various other agencies of the Government of India and State governments.
The government has been closely monitoring the situation with respect to the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on Indians abroad. The Civil Aviation Ministry has released a detailed schedule for the evacuation of stranded citizens from various countries. Sixty-four flights will be operated aiming to bring 15,000 Indians from May 7 to May 14. The Indian Air Force has also been placed on standby to carry out evacuations.
The Indian Navy was directed to make suitable preparations for their evacuation by sea. The navy is one of the most capable organisations to carry out such evacuations in view of its mission based deployments in the Indian Ocean Region. The navy has carried out similar evacuation operations from overseas on earlier occasions.
For instance, Operation Sukoon that was launched by the Indian Navy to evacuate Indian, Sri Lankan and Nepalese nationals, as well as Lebanese nationals with Indian spouses, from the conflict zone during the 2006 Lebanon War. The navy had also evacuated Indians from Yemen during the civil war there in 2015.
Courtesy: economictimes.com