INS MAGAR ARRIVES AT MALE TO EVACUATE INDIAN NATIONALS

INS Magar, the second naval ship of the Indian Navy’s Op Samudra Setu, to evacuate stranded Indian Nationals from the 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, made all necessary logistic, medical and administrative preparations at her base port Kochi to comfortably accommodate civilians before setting sail towards the 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 the dining hall, bathrooms, etc. Concurrently, the first ship carrying evacuees from the Maldives, INS Jalashwa reached Kochi harbor on Sunday, May 10  morning with 698 Indian citizens.