New Delhi (NVI): Indian Air Force (IAF) and Indian Navy (IN) have intensified their efforts to aid states and UTs in tackling the coronavirus 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 total capacity of 4,904 Metric Tonnes (MT) as of today,” the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
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, it said.
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 Singapor, the statement said.
The Indian Navy deployed its ships INS Talwar, INS Kolkata, INS Airavat, INS Kochi, INS Tabar, INS Trikand, INS Jalashwa and INS Shardulto ferry oxygen containers, cylinders and concentrators and other related equipment from the friendly foreign countries.
Loading of oxygen containers and other medical supplies has also been planned on INS Tarkash, INS Shardul and INS Jalashwa from Doha, Kuwait and Muara, Brunei respectively in the coming days, it added.
