Indian Navy and Airforce ready to evacuate Indians stranded abroad -

New Delhi: The procedure to bring back the Indians stranded abroad, because of the Coronavirus pandemic, has been initiated. According to the action plan, the Indian Navy through its ‘Operation Samudra’ and the Indian Airforce through its operation ‘Vande Bharat’, will bring the Indians abroad, back home, between 7th and 13th May. Three Indian Navy warships have left for Maldives and Dubai for this purpose, on Monday night.

The spokesman of the Indian defence forces informed ‘INS Jalashwa and INS Magar, stationed in the Indian naval base in Mumbai, left for the Maldives, on Monday night. These warships will reach the Indian shores again on the 8th of May. Both INS Jalashwa and INS Magar are from the amphibious warship class. The warships can carry nearly 1,000 people, at one time. The embassy in the Maldives is preparing a list of Indians who want to come back to India. The Maldives government will be releasing these Indians only after a medical screening. These ships have been equipped with all the facilities, including medical facilities. Whereas, INS Shardul has been despatched to Dubai. All these three warships will bring all these Indians to the Kochi port. Further actions will be taken after a thorough medical examination of these people.’

Lockdown has been imposed in many countries of the world in view of the Coronavirus pandemic. This has resulted in hundreds of Indians being stranded in those countries. The highest number of people are stranded in the Gulf countries. Only last week, Chief of naval staff Admiral Karambir Singh had said that all the preparations to evacuate the Indian citizens, stranded abroad, have been completed. The Indian Airforce has kept 64 aircrafts ready for the evacuation operation. 14,800 Indians will be brought in these aircraft. Two of these will leave for the United Arab Emirates on the 7th of May. One flight will bring people from Abu Dhabi to Kochi. Whereas, the other will bring people from Dubai to Kozhikode. Before the flight, passengers will be screened and the passengers with no signs of Coronavirus infection only will be allowed to board the aircraft. At the same time, the meticulous observance of the instructions issued by the Health and the Civil Aviation Department will be mandatory for the passengers.