India to set up field hospital in quake-hit Myanmar, sends two more planes with rescue teams

The Ministry of External Affairs on Saturday said that the Indian Army will build a field hospital in Myanmar after the country was struck by a massive earthquake of magnitude 7.7, killing over 1,000 people. The 118 members of the hospital will depart from Agra later today.

Talking about the Indian aid operation in Myanmar so far, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “One aircraft took off this morning and then two more aircraft will take off carrying search and rescue teams and other essential supplies. And then two more aircraft will take off in the evening when the field hospital is airlifted, taking the number of aircraft to five for the time being.”

He added that there are no casualties among Indian nationals living in Myanmar reported yet.

Brigadier HS Mavi said that the field hospital is currently being loaded and will fly out to Myanmar later in the evening. The hospital will be operational from tomorrow.

The shallow 7.7-magnitude quake struck northwest of the city of Sagaing in central Myanmar in the early afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.

The quake destroyed buildings, downed bridges, and buckled roads across swathes of Myanmar, with massive destruction seen in Mandalay, the country’s second biggest city and home to more than 1.7 million people.

Naval ships dispatched to Myanmar

India has dispatched two naval ships to the neighbouring country, the MEA said. Jaiswal said that two more Indian naval ships would follow under this humanitarian assistance operation.

“There are four ships; two of them are already underway, one sailed at two o’clock this morning and the other one at two in the afternoon, and both ships are expected to reach Yangon, Myanmar on 31st March. There are two ships which are on standby at Sri Vijaya Puram in the Andaman and they will sail tomorrow and they will reach at about the same time when the first two ships are leaving that place,” Commodore Raghunath Nair said.

“A team of 80 NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) personnel are being sent to Myanmar aboard two IAF (Indian Air Force) sorties from Hindon in Ghaziabad. Both teams are expected to reach Nay Pyi Taw by Saturday evening,” an official told PTI.