Operation Samudra Setu Phase – 2, which started to bring back people trapped in various countries by sea due to corona, has become the best alternative. On May 12th, the vessel brought back 698 stranded Indian people from Maldives to Kochi. At present, Defense officials said the Navy’s warship INS, with 588 individuals, departed from Maldives on Saturday.
In the phase 2 of Operation Samudra Setu, INS Jalashwa travelled from Male, which is a capital of Maldives to Kerala’s Kochi along with 70 women and 21 children. The ship is expected to arrive in Kochi on Sunday morning. A defense source said owing to the unfavourable weather prevailing in the area, the process of getting the stranded people on board has delayed a bit. The Indian nationals were screened thoroughly under medical surveillance, assigned IDs and their baggage was sanitised before boarding the ship.
In a tweet, the High Commission of India in Maldives stated it was grateful to the timely service provided by the government of the island nation for ensuring safe repatriation of stranded Indian nationals.
The Indian High commission tweeted. “We are extremely grateful to the Govt. of #Maldives and all concerned agencies in ensuring safe and secure repatriation of nearly 1500 Indian nationals from the Maldives under Op. #SamudraSetu,”.