Indian Airforce, Navy step up efforts to ferry oxygen and medical supplies

Indian Air Force and Navy have intensified their efforts to aid the civil administration in tackling the current COVID-19 situation by ferrying oxygen containers and medical equipment. The C-17 aircraft of Indian Air force have conducted 400 sorties from within the country, including 351 to airlift 252 oxygen tankers of a total capacity of four thousand 904 tonnes.

The cities covered were Jamnagar, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Panagarh, Indore, Ranchi, Agra, Jodhpur, Begumpet, Bhubaneswar, Pune, Surat, Raipur, Udaipur, Mumbai, Lucknow, Nagpur, Gwalior, Vijaywada, Baroda, Dimapur and Hindan.

The Air Force aircraft also conducted 59 international sorties to airlift 72 cryogenic oxygen storage containers of one thousand 233 tonnes. The containers and cylinders were procured from Singapore, Dubai, Bangkok, UK, Germany, Belgium and Australia. In addition, the C-17 and IL-76 aircraft have been tasked to airlift cryogenic oxygen containers, oxygen generators and ventilators from Israel and Singapore.

The Navy has also deployed its INS Talwar, Kolkata, Airavat, Kochi, Tabar, Trikand, Jalashwa and Shardul to ferry oxygen containers, cylinders, concentrators and related equipment from friendly foreign countries.

The Ministry said, in the coming days, loading of oxygen containers and other medical supplies has also been planned on INS Tarkash, Shardul and Jalashwa from Doha, Kuwait and Muara in Brunei.