With oxygen and med supplies, three warships reach India

Three Indian warships, with large oxygen-filled containers, cylinders and other medical supplies from abroad, reached the country on Monday under the ongoing Operation Samudra Setu-II launched by the Navy.

Stealth frigate INS Trikand arrived at Mumbai with 40 metric ton (MT) of liquid medical oxygen in cryogenic containers from the Hamad Port at Doha in Qatar. “This consignment is part of ‘Oxygen Solidarity Bridge’ of France, through its mission in Qatar, to support India’s fight against Covid-19 pandemic,” said Navy spokesperson Commander Vivek Madhwal.

The India-French initiative is aimed at shipping over 600 MT of liquid oxygen to India over the next two months. Destroyer INS Kolkata, in turn, reached the New Mangalore port with two 27MT containers filled with liquid oxygen, 400 cylinders and some oxygen concentrators that were embarked at Qatar and Kuwait.

Similarly, amphibious warfare ship INS Airavat arrived in Visakhapatnam with eight empty 20-MT cryogenic tanks and 3,898 cylinders, along with other medical supplies like oxygen concentrators, 10,000 rapid antigen test kits and 450 PPE suits, from Singapore.

“These three warships are part of nine deployed under Operation Samudra Setu-II for shipment of liquid medical oxygen and associated medical equipment from friendly foreign countries in the Persian Gulf and South East Asia. Two more warships are on their way to India from Kuwait, while one is now at Brunei to embark medical supplies,” said Commander Madhwal. ToI