Indian Navy Chief Admiral Karambir Singh on Friday said his force was ready for evacuating Indian citizens from Gulf countries as soon as it gets the go-ahead from the government.
The central government has plans to carry out operations to evacuate Indian citizens stranded in Gulf countries and the Indian armed forces have been asked to be ready for the operation.
"We have a large diaspora in the Gulf. We were informed that we must be ready for evacuation, all of us together will carry out the evacuation. We have readied our ships and will go for the evacuation as soon as we get the go-ahead," said Admiral Singh while addressing a joint press conference with Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Bipin Rawat and the two other service chiefs.
"It does not have to be one trip, it could be more trips. It can be a continuous process depending on the numbers," he added.
The central government has banned domestic and international flight operations to combat COVID-19.
Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had also clarified that the flight restrictions that have been imposed as a result of COVID-19 outbreak will be lifted once the spread of the infection is controlled.
( With inputs from ANI )