INS Jalashwa arrives in Maldives to bring back 1,000 Stranded Indian Nationals

Male, May 7: Under Operation Samudra Setu, the Indian Navy started evacuating the stranded Indian citizens as  INS Jalashwa arrived in Male, the Maldives on Thursday to bring back 1,000 Indian citizens who were stranded in the island nation.

 

INS Jalashwa which is the biggest amphibious assault ship can almost 1,000 people. 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 abroad and the first country being the Maldives.

 

 

“Indian Naval ships INS Jalashwa and INS Magar are presently en route to the port of Malè, Republic of Maldives to commence evacuation operations from May 8 as part of Phase-1,” the navy said.

 

 

The operation is closely co-ordinated with Ministries of Defence, External Affairs, Home Affairs, Health to tackle the lockdown. It was earlier reported that INS Magar is also readied for the evacuation. The warship is also on way to the Maldives.

 

On the other hand, the first Air India flight to repatriate stranded Indian nationals from Abu Dhabi, UAE took off from Kochi Airport ton Thursday. It will return to India at 9.40 pm with 179 passengers.

 

Another flight of Air India departed to Dubai from Kozhikode international airport to carry 177 passengers and five infants. The flight is expected to land at Kozhikode airport at 10.30 pm on Thursday night, officials said.

 

Around 2,000 people are expected to reach the state in the first five days on board 13 flights, official sources said adding arrangements, including accommodation for quarantine and thermal screening at airports, have been made.