Indian Air Force, Navy working on war footing in fight against COVID-19

New Delhi [India], May 10 (ANI): The Indian Air Force (IAF) and Indian Navy are working tirelessly to provide logistic support to shore up medical supplies to tackle the current COVID-19 situation, as per the Ministry of Defence on Monday.

As on the early hours of May 10, 2021, the IAF aircraft carried out 534 sorties from various parts of the country, airlifting 336 oxygen containers of a total capacity of 6,420 Metric Tonnes (MT) and other medical supplies and equipment. The cities covered are Jamnagar, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Panagarh, Indore, Ranchi, Agra, Jodhpur, Begumpet, Bhubaneshwar, Pune, Surat, Raipur, Udaipur, Mumbai, Lucknow, Nagpur, Gwalior, Vijayawada, Baroda, Dimapur and Hindan.

The IAF aircraft also carried out 84 international sorties, airlifting 81 cryogenic oxygen storage containers of a total capacity of 1,407 MT along with 1,252 empty oxygen cylinders, 705 oxygen concentrators and Zeolite (respiratory oxygen raw material). The equipment has been procured from Singapore, Dubai, Thailand, United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Australia, Indonesia and Israel.

As part of operation 'Samudra Setu II', Indian Naval Ships INS Airavat, INS Trikandand INS Kolkata arrived back home with critical COVID-19 medical stores from friendly foreign countries on May 10, 2021. INS Talwar had arrived on May 5, 2021.

INS Kochi, INS Tabar, INS Jalashwa and INS Shardulare are expected to arrive home soon with critical COVID-19 medical stores, including oxygen tankers and cylinders, from friendly foreign countries, the ministry said.

The Ministry of Defence on Sunday said the Indian Air Force is operating around-the-clock Covid Air Support Management Cell (CASMC) at Palam Air Base since April 27 to establish a seamless flow of information and reduce time delays in the distribution of relief aid coming from foreign countries.

As per an official release, the primary task of the cell is to efficiently coordinate the distribution of all the relief aid coming from foreign countries.

"The cell is operational round the clock. Resources have been coordinated to cater for surge operations which include manpower, ground handling and loading eqpt and vehicles like flat top trailers and fork lifters," it said. (ANI)