Indian Air Force & Navy step up efforts to ferry oxygen and medical supplies
Indian Air Force (IAF) and Indian Navy (IN) have intensified their efforts to aid the civil administration in tackling the current COVID19 situation by ferrying oxygen containers and medical equipment.As on May 07, 2021, the C-17 aircraft of IAFhave conducted 400 sorties from within the country, including 351 to airlift 252 oxygen tankers of total capacity of 4,904 Metric Tonnes (MT). 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 IAF aircraft also conducted 59 international sorties to airlift 72 cryogenic oxygen storage containers of 1,233 MT total capacity along with 1,252 empty oxygen cylinders. 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 Indian Navy deployed itsships INS Talwar, INS Kolkata, INS Airavat, INS Kochi, INS Tabar, INS Trikand, INS Jalashwa& INS Shardulto ferryoxygen containers/cylinders/concentrators and related equipment from friendly foreign countries. The details are as follows:-
| Ship Name
| Medical Supplies | Country/Port | Status |
| INS Talwar | 27-MT oxygen containers – 02 | Bahrain | Arrived at New Mangalore on May 05, 2021 |
|
INS Kolkata | Oxygen cylinders – 200 Oxygen concentrators – 43 + Oxygen cylinders – 200 27-MT oxygen containers – 02 Oxygen concentrators– 04
| Doha, Qatar
+
Kuwait |
Expected arrival at Mundra on May 09, 2021 |
| INS Kochi | 27-MT oxygen containers – 03 Oxygen concentrators – 03 Oxygen cylinders–800
| Kuwait | Expected arrivalat Mundra/Mumbaion May 10/11, 2021
|
| INS Tabar | 27-MT oxygen containers – 02 Oxygen cylinders–600 | Kuwait | Expected arrivalat Mundra/Mumbai on May 10/11, 2021
|
| INS Trikand | 27-MT oxygen containers– 02 | Doha, Qatar | Expected arrivalat Mumbai on May 10, 2021
|
|
INS Airavat | 20 T empty cryogenic oxygen cylinders – 08 Empty oxygen cylinders – 3,150 Filled oxygen cylinders – 500 Oxygen concentrators – 07 Rapid Antigen Test kits – 10,000 PPE kits – 450
|
Singapore |
Expected arrivalat Visakhapatnam on May 10, 2021 |
Loading of oxygen containers and other medical supplies has also been planned on INS Tarkash, INS Shardul and INS Jalashwafrom Doha, Kuwait and Muara, Brunei respectively in the coming days.