Indian Navy’s Operation Samudra II has seen warships bring oxygen and other essential medical supplies
Bengaluru: As India fights the pandemic as one, its Navy has started what is called Operation Samudra II, a relief endeavour.
Ships from all three Naval Commands in Mumbai, Visakhapatnam and Kochi, were deployed for shipment of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) and associated medical equipment from friendly foreign countries in Persian Gulf and South East Asia.
Indian Naval Ship Talwar entered the port of New Mangalore in Karnataka on 5 May, ferrying two 27 tons liquid oxygen tanks from Bahrain. INS Kolkata departed Kuwait with two 27 ton oxygen tanks, 400 Oxygen cylinders and 47 concentrators, notes Swarajya.
4 warships are also enroute to Qatar and Kuwait, to embark around nine 27-ton Oxygen tanks and more than 1500 oxygen cylinders from these countries.
Indian Naval Ship Airavat, meanwhile, left Singapore with more than 3600 oxygen cylinders, eight 27-ton (216 tons) oxygen tanks, 10,000 Rapid Antigen Detection test kits and seven concentrators while INS Jalashwa remains deployed in the region, standing by to embark medical stores at short notice.
INS Shardul is also on its way to Persian Gulf to bring three liquid Oxygen filled cryogenic containers. Last year, INS Jalashwa and INS Shardul, had taken part in Operation Samudra Setu to repatriate stranded Indian citizens from abroad.
“The deployment of nine warships as part of ‘Operation Samudra Setu II’ forms a part of the multiple lines of effort, by the Government of India and the Indian Navy to supplement the oxygen requirement in the country,” the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
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