Visakhapatnam: Under Operation Samudra Setu, INS Shardul has brought back 233 stranded Indian nationals, who were earlier evacuated from Bandar Abbas port in Iran. The ship entered Porbandar harbour on Friday.

Personnel from Indian Navy, state authorities and police officials received the evacuees. All arrangements including a screening zone, a sanitisation zone, availability of ambulances and buses for transport were put in place at the port.

The evacuees were disembarked and were taken for medical screening at the jetty followed by Customs clearance and other formalities. The evacuees thereafter boarded buses arranged to take them to the designated quarantine zones. District wise details of the evacuees had already been forwarded to the administration beforehand.

Operation Samudra Setu is the Indian Navy's contribution to the Government of India's national efforts to facilitate return of Indian citizens from foreign shores. So far, a total of 3,107 Indian citizens have been brought back from Maldives (2,188), Sri Lanka (686) and Iran (233) by Indian Naval ships Jalashwa, Magar and Shardul.