NEW DELHI: The Indian Navy has stepped up its Covid relief Operation Samudra Setu II with ships from all three Naval Commands in Mumbai, Visakhapatnam and Kochi deployed to ship Liquid Medical Oxygen and associated medical equipment from friendly foreign countries in the Persian Gulf and South-East Asia.
Indian Navy has three Commands - Western, Eastern and Southern. The simultaneous warship movements continue on the Western and Eastern seaboards.
On the Western seaboard, while Indian Naval Ship (INS) Talwar was entering the port of New Mangalore in Karnataka on Wednesday May 5, during the same time INS Kolkata, deployed in Persian Gulf, was departing Kuwait.
INS Talwar ferried two 27-ton liquid oxygen tanks from Bahrain, and INS Kolkata is carrying two 27-ton oxygen tanks, 400 oxygen cylinders and 47 concentrators.
In addition, four warships are also en route to Qatar and Kuwait to bring back around nine 27-ton oxygen tanks and more than 1500 oxygen cylinders from these countries.
On the Eastern Seaboard, Indian Naval Ship Airavat, departed from Singapore on Wednesday with more than 3600 oxygen cylinders, eight 27-ton (216 tons) oxygen tanks, 10000 Rapid Antigen Detection Test Kits and seven concentrators while INS Jalashwa remains deployed in the region, standing by to embark on its mission at short notice.
INS Shardul, the Landing Ship Tank of the Southern Naval Command at Kochi, is also on its way to the Persian Gulf to bring three liquid oxygen-filled cryogenic containers. It may be recalled that INS Jalashwa and INS Shardul had also participated in Operation Samudra Setu last year to repatriate stranded Indian citizens from abroad.
The deployment of nine warships as part of the 'Operation Samudra Setu II' forms a part of the multiple lines of effort by the Government and the Indian Navy to supplement the oxygen requirement in the country.