Indian Navy's INS Jalashwa had repatriated stranded Indian nationals from Sri Lanka to Thoothukudi VO Chidambaranar Port here on Tuesday.
As many as 693 evacuees, with over 685 of them belonging to Tamil Nadu, stranded in the neighbouring island nation due to COVID-19 pandemic were repatriated under the ‘Operation Samudra Setu'.
The INS Jalashwa was berthed at berth number 14 of VOC Port at around 9.30 am on Tuesday.
In order to ensure seemless disembarkation process, the Port authorities coordinated the district administration, customs, Port Health Organisation (PHO), Immigration, Indian Navy since May 29.
The passengers onboard were screened by health staffs before disembarking the vessel. Each passenger were provided with a Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kit and their luggages were disinfected by the Port authorities.
The passengers were transited from the berth to the passenger terminal where the antecedents of each passenger was checked. They were insisted to download and configure ‘Aarogya Setu’ app in their smartphones.
Afterwards, the Customs and immigration formalities were conducted and then the passengers were guided to their respective buses to reach their destinations.
Breakfast and lunch were served to all the passengers jointly arranged by Port and district administration.
The officials of the stakeholding agencies emulated Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for disembarkation of expatriates.
VOC Port Chairman TK Ramachandran, district collector Sandeep Nanduri, Superintendent of Police Arun Balagopalan were present and supervised the disembarking process.