Indian Naval Ship Airavat repatriated 198 Indians stranded in Maldives following COVID-19-induced lockdown to VOC Port here on Tuesday under the Union Government’s ‘Samudhra Setu’ operation.
This is the third mission to be undertaken by the Indian Navy as INS Jalashwa had repatriated the Indians from Colombo and Male recently.
Of the 198 repatriates, 195 are from Tamil Nadu while the remaining three are from neighbouring Union Territory of Puducherry, who were provided with personal protection equipment kits before boarding the waiting buses to take them to their respective destinations that included Thoothukudi, Virudhunagar, Kanniyakumari etc.
Receiving the repatriates at VOC Port, Collector Sandeep Nanduri said INS Airavat had brought the stranded Indians from Maldives after INS Jalashwa had brought back Indians stranded in Sri Lanka and Maldives. In the next mission, around 700 Indians stranded in Iran would be brought to VOC Port, Thoothukudi on June 28.
He said there was no need to clamp total lockdown in Thoothukudi as the pandemic was under control and there was no community transmission.
Chairman of VOC Port T.K. Ramachandran, Superintendent of Police Arun Balagopalan and other senior officials were present.
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