After evacuating 698 Indians last week, the Indian Navy warship INS Jalashwa has returned to Male, Capital of Maldives, to bring out 700 more Indians. The 17, 000-ton amphibious ship, technically known as landing platform dock(LPD), will enter the Male port on Friday morning for the rescue effort. Another ship, INS Magar, on Sunday brought out 200 Indians from there. Both the ships docked at Kochi, Kerala for disembarkation of passengers.
Giving details of the mission to bring out Indians from foreign shores by sea known as ‘Operation Samudra Setu, officials said here on Thursday the second phase of this operation is now on with INS Jalashwa about to enter Male. Embarkation of Indian citizens, who have already registered with the Indian Embassy in Maldives, will commence on Friday morning. The ship will depart for Kochi by Friday night.
Earlier, after successfully bringing home 698 Indian nationals to Kochi on May 12, INS Jalashwa proceeded for preparatory activities towards Phase II of the evacuation operation which included disinfection and sanitisation of the entire ship with special attention to the areas occupied by the previous set of repatriated citizens.
The ship is now anchored off Male and will undertake embarkation of the second set of Indian nationals on Friday. Nearly 700 Indian nationals, including 100 women and children will be repatriated. The Indian nationals evacuated will be screened medically, allotted IDs and their baggage sanitised before boarding the ship, officials said.