IAF conducts 160 sorties to facilitate oxygen supply across India

NEW DELHI: The IAF has conducted around 160 sorties, including 25 from abroad, over the last fortnight to airlift empty cryogenic containers and tankers to ease transportation and distribution bottlenecks in the supply of oxygen in the country.
The Navy has now also deployed warships to transport fully-loaded oxygen cryogenic containers from countries like Bahrain, Thailand and Singapore under “Operation Samudra Setu-II”.
Destroyer INS Kolkata and stealth frigate INS Talwar entered the port of Manama in Bahrain on Friday to embark 40 metric ton of liquid oxygen to Mumbai, while amphibious warships INS Jalashwa and INS Airavat are enroute to Bangkok and Singapore for similar missions, said an officer.
IAF heavy-lift aircraft like C-17 Globemaster-III and IL-76, in turn, had carried out 23 sorties from countries like UAE, Singapore and Thailand to airlift 39 large oxygen containers, with a total capacity of 670 metric ton, till Thursday. Two more C-17s were slated to transport eight oxygen tankers from Singapore to Panagarh in West Bengal on Friday, said an official.
The IAF aircraft have also carried out 124 sorties to airlift 87 containers, with a capacity of 1,798 metric ton, within the country in recent days. Nine more C-17 sorties were slated from places like Chandigarh, Agra, Baroda, Indore and Gwalior to Bhubaneswar, Ranchi, Raipur and Surat, among other places, on Friday.
IAF aircraft also continue to crisscross the country to transport medical teams and equipment. On Friday, this included airlifting equipment for three oxygen plants on board IL-76s from Delhi to Dimapur as well as Army medical personnel and 15.3 ton of supplies for setting up a Covid hospital at Lucknow.
The empty oxygen containers or tankers are being transported from their place of use to oxygen plants and filling stations, which after being replenished there are sent back through trains and roads.
Airlift of loaded liquid oxygen tankers is not being carried out because it can be hazardous if the aircraft suddenly loses cabin pressure or there is a leakage at high altitude, said officials.