THOOTHUKUDI: Indian Navy Ship Jalashwa repatriated as many as 687 Indians stranded in Iran to Thoothukudi's VO Chidambaranar Port on Wednesday as a part of the 'Samudra Setu' mission launched by the Centre.
INS Jalashwa began its voyage from Shahid Bahonar terminal in Bandar Abbas port in Iran on June 25 and reached Thoothukudi port after six days.
The 687 evacuees include 652 from Tamil Nadu and 35 from Kerala. Of the 652 from Tamil Nadu, 530 belong to Kanyakumari district.
The Port Health Officials screened the evacuees and sanitised their luggage, besides providing Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits to each of them before they were transported to the passenger terminal in 25 buses. The evacuees were asked to install the ‘Aarogya Setu’ app in their smartphones and a self-declaration form was obtained from each.
Following immigration and customs formalities, the passengers boarded buses for their final destinations.
Information and Publicity Minister Kadambur C Raju inspected the arrangements made for the evacuees in the presence of district collector Sandeep Nanduri, VOC port trust Chairman TK Ramachandran and other dignitaries.