INS Jalashwa carrying 698 Indian nationals from Male will reach Kochi tomorrow morning. The evacuation is part of Indian government’s program to evacuate Indians stranded abroad. The program named Samudrasetu by Indian Navy entails to bring back around 2,000 Indians in four ships from Maldives.

Another ship of Indian Navy INS Magar is expected to depart for Tuticorin tomorrow and preparations have also begun. The two ships will repeat the exercise next week carrying another 900 people back.

Our Correspondent reports, preparations are in full swing for evacuation of Indian nationals from Maldives through the second Indian navy ship INS Magar. The evacuation, part of Samudrasetu, under Vande Bharat mission, will bring back another around 200 Indians to Kochi.

Indian high commission in Male is busy giving final touches for the arrangements and it released a list of 211 probable passengers for tomorrow’s journey. The first ship INS Jalashwa had left Male last night and is expected to reach Kochi tomorrow morning.

The ship is carrying 698 Indian nationals including 19 pregnant women and 14 children. The second leg of Samudrasetu will happen next week when both ships sill return to Maldives capital and carry similar number of passengers back to Tuticorin in Tamil nadu.

In this whole operation, Maldives government and local youth volunteers have played a very important role thus further deepening the excellent bilateral relations between the two neighbors.