Relentless efforts by Indian Air Force & Indian Navy to provide critical COVID-19 medical supplies
ABB/Nampi/KA/DK/Savvy/ADA
Indian Air Force (IAF) and Indian Navy (IN) continue to work round the clock to provide oxygen and other medical supplies to the civil administration to tackle the current COVID-19 situation in the country. As on early hours of May 12, 2021, the aircraft of IAF airlifted 403 oxygen containers of 6,856 Metric Tonnes (MT)capacity along with other equipment of 163 MT capacity, in 634 sorties from different parts of the country. 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 have also conducted 98 sorties from different countries, airlifting 95 containers of 793 MT capacity and other equipment of 204 MT capacity. The equipment has been procured from Singapore, Dubai, Thailand, Germany, Australia, Belgium, Indonesia, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Israel and France.
As part of operation ‘Samudra Setu II’, seven Indian Naval Ships have returned home with 260 MT of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) from 13 containers for direct supply to various states, eight oxygen containers of total capacity 160 MT, approx. 2,600 oxygen filled cylinders and 3,150 empty cylinders for Oxygen from Persian Gulf and Southeast Asia. While INS Jalashwa is presently in Brunei, INS Shardul is scheduled to enter Kuwait on May 12, 2021. Following are the details of IN ships that have returned home:-
| Ship | Medical Supplies | Country/Port | Arrival |
| INS Tarkash | 27-MT Liquid Medical Oxygen filled containers – 02 Oxygen cylinders – 230 | Qatar | Mumbai on May 12, 2021 |
| INS Kochi & INS Tabar | 100MT Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) in five containers Oxygen cylinders – 1200 | Kuwait | New Mangalore Port on May 11, 2021 |
| INS Airavat | Cryogenic oxygen tanks – 08 Oxygen cylinders –3,898 Other critical COVID-19 medical stores | Singapore | Visakhapatnam on May 10, 2021 |
| INS Trikand | 40 MT Liquid Oxygen (Liquid Medical Oxygen cryogenic containers) | Qatar | Mumbai on May 10, 2021 |
| INS Kolkata | Oxygen Cylinders – 400 27-MT Liquid Medical Oxygen Containers – 02 Oxygen concentrators – 47 | Qatar & Kuwait | New Mangalore Port on May 10, 2021 |
| INS Talwar | 27-MT oxygen containers – 02 | Bahrain | New Mangalore Port on May 05, 2021 |