PIB News Update: INS Magar, the second naval ship of the Indian Navy’s Op Samudra Setu, to evacuate stranded Indian Nationals from Maldives and ensure smooth and safe passage back to India, arrived at Male Port on the morning of 10 May 20. INS Magar, an LST(L) designed for landing operations, had made all necessary logistic, medical and administrative preparations at her base port Kochi to comfortably accommodate civilians before setting sail towards Maldives.
The ship will evacuate about 200 citizens while ensuring all precautions related to COVID-19 including social distancing norms are followed. 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. Additional precautions have been taken by dividing the evacuees into groups to avoid crowding at common areas like dining hall, bathrooms etc.
Concurrently, the first ship carrying evacuees from Maldives, INS Jalashwa reached Kochi harbour this morning with 698 Indian citizens.