Indian Navy deploys 7 ships to transport oxygen-filled cryogenic containers from abroad

New Delhi, May 1 (UNI) In support of the nation’s fight against Covid-19 and as part of operation ‘Samudra Setu II’, the Indian Navy on Saturday said that seven Indian Naval ships INS Kolkata, Kochi, Talwar, Tabar, Trikand, Jalashwa and Airavat have been deployed for shipment of liquid medical oxygen-filled cryogenic containers and associated medical equipment from various countries.
INS Kolkata and INS Talwar which were on Persian Gulf deployment, were the first to immediately diverted for the task and entered port of Manama, Bahrain on April 30.
The INS Talwar, with 40 MT Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) has already embarked on return journey while INS Kolkata has proceeded to Doha, Qatar for embarking medical supplies and will subsequently head to Kuwait for embarking Liquid Oxygen tanks.
Similarly, on the Eastern seaboard, INS Airavat too has been diverted for the task, while INS Jalashwa, has been pulled out of maintenance, readied and sailed out to augment the effort.
INS Airavat is scheduled to enter Singapore for embarking Liquid oxygen tanks while INS Jalashwa is standing by in the region to embark medical stores at short notice.
The second batch of ships comprising INS Kochi, INS Trikand and INS Tabar mission deployed in Arabian sea have also been diverted to join the national effort.
From the Southern Naval Command, the Landing Ship Tank INS Shardul is being readied to join the Operation within 48 hours.
The Operation Samudra Setu was launched last year by the Navy and around 4000 Indian citizens stranded in neighbouring countries, amidst COVID 19 outbreak, were successfully repatriated back to India.