INS Magar departs from Male port after evacuating 202 Indians

INS Magar departed from Male in the Maldives on Sunday for Kochi in Kerala with 202 Indian nationals, the Indian Navy said.

INS Jalashwa, the first ship carrying evacuees from the Maldives under ‘Operation Samudra Setu’ reached Kochi harbour on Sunday morning with 698 Indian citizens, the Navy said in a statement.

INS Magar, designed for landing operations, had made all necessary logistic, medical and administrative preparations at her base port in Kochi to comfortably accommodate civilians before setting sail towards the Maldives.

"A total of 202 personnel have embarked the (INS Magar) ship, which includes 24 women, two expectant mothers and two children. One of the men, who hails from Tamil Nadu, has a fractured leg,” the statement said.

While heavy rains at Male made conditions difficult, the ship made arrangements to ensure the safety of people, the Indian Navy stated.

"An entirely separate section of the ship with essential facilities like food and washrooms has been prepared to accommodate the evacuees, and a separate mess has been allotted for ladies, infants and senior citizens," it mentioned.

The evacuees have been divided into groups to avoid crowding at common areas like the dining hall and bathrooms, the Navy noted.

Air India is operating 64 repatriation flights from May 7 to May 14, while the Navy has deployed two ships as India rolled out a massive evacuation plan on Tuesday to bring back thousands of its nationals stranded abroad due to the coronavirus lockdown.

From the Gulf countries to Malaysia and the UK to the US, the multi-agency operation christened ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ will see the state-owned airline operate non-scheduled commercial flights till May 14 to ferry around 15,000 Indian nationals from 12 countries.

Under the mission, the Navy had launched the Operation Samudra Setu (Sea Bridge) under which it dispatched two ships to Male to commence the first phase of the evacuation operation from May 8.