New Delhi, July 8: Operation Samudra Setu, which was launched on May 5, 2020, to bring back stranded Indians from overseas, has finally concluded. The operation by the Indian Navy, which was launched as part of the national effort to repatriate Indian citizens from different countries during the COVID-19 pandemic culminated today after successfully bringing 3,992 Indian citizens back to their homeland by sea.

Indian Naval Ships Jalashwa (Landing Platform Dock), and Airavat, Shardul and Magar (Landing Ship Tanks) participated in this operation. The Operation Samudra Setu lasted over 55 days and involved traversing more then 23,000 kilometers by sea.  Indian Navy has previously undertaken similar evacuation operations as part of Operation Sukoon in 2006 (Beirut) and Operation Rahat in 2015 (Yemen).

Details of the evacuation are as follows: -

Ship

 

 Date Embarked Port of Embarkation Number of Citizens Date Disembarked Port of Disembarkation
Jalashwa 8 May Malѐ 698 10 May Kochi
Magar 10 May Malѐ 202 12 May Kochi
Jalashwa 15 May Malѐ 588 17 May Kochi
Jalashwa 1 June Colombo 686 2 June Tuticorin
Jalashwa 5 June Malѐ 700 7 June Tuticorin
Shardul 8 June Bandar Abbas 233 11 June Porbandar
Airavat 20 June Malѐ 198 23 June Tuticorin
Jalashwa 25 June Bandar Abbas 687 1 July Tuticorin

The 3,992 Indian citizens, who were evacuated during Operation Samudra Setu, were disembarked at various ports as indicated in the table above and entrusted to the care of respective state authorities. It was the greatest challenge for the Indian Navy was to avoid any incident of outbreak of infection onboard the ships during the evacuation operation.

Here's the tweet by Indian Navy:

The ships used for the operation were specially provisioned and the Sick Bay or the clinic onboard was especially equipped with COVID-19 related equipment and facilities. Women Officers and military nursing staff were also embarked for the women passengers. Basic amenities and medical facilities were provided to all evacuees during sea passage on these ships.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 08, 2020 08:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).