THOOTHUKUDI: Indian Navy Ship ‘Jalashwa’ made a second call to Thoothukudi VO Chidambaranar Port Trust with 700 Indian expats from Maldives as a part of the ongoing 'Samudra Setu' mission launched by the Government of India to repatriate Indians stranded in different parts of the world. Earlier on June 2, 2020, Jalashwa repatriated 686 Indians from Colombo.
VOC Port officials said that the INS ‘Jalashwa’ had departed from ‘Port of Male’, Maldives at around 9.30 pm on June 05 and reached outer anchorage of VOC Port on Sunday morning at 9 am. The vessel was docked at berth number 14 the 700 evacuees were disembarked. The evacuees include 655 men and 45 women.
As per Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for disembarkation of expatriates, the Port Health Officials screened the evacuees, sanitised their luggage, provided Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits to all passengers before they were transited to passenger terminal in 25 waiting buses. Self-declaration forms were obtained from the passengers who were asked to install ‘Aarogya Setu’ app on their smartphones, using the free Wi-fi provided by the Port Authority.
Following immigration and customs formalities, the passengers were guided to the respective buses scheduled for their destinations. Refreshments, breakfast and lunch for all the passengers were jointly arranged by the Port Authority and District Administration.
The operations were meticulously guided by VOC Chairman TK Ramachandran, district collector Sandeep Nanduri, SP Arun Balagopalan.
Nanduri said that the Jalashwa had repatriated 700 persons including 508 Tamils, and 192 belong to other states of India. Except 50 Thoothukudi residents and the 192 people from other states, all others are transported in buses to their districts where they will be quarantined as per protocol. The Thoothukudi residents and those who belong to other states are shifted to quarantine centres where they are isolated for seven days, to know any symptoms before they leave for their homes, he said. "If anyone developed symptoms during the quarantine will undergo treatment here", he said. Another set of expats from Iran is likely to be repatriated on June 21, he said further.