Indian Armed Forces Will Thank All Corona Warriors On Sunday By Flying All Over The Country

Aerial salute will be planned over Delhi between 1000-1030 hrs. Fighter aircraft formations, comprising of Sukhoi-30 MKI, MiG-29 and Jaguar will be flying over Rajpath and will orbit over Delhi, says MoD.

The armed forces have made elaborate arrangements to conduct aerial fly-pasts, light up ships at sea and shower flower petals on several hospitals across the country on Sunday to express gratitude to lakhs of doctors, paramedics, sanitation staff and other front-line workers engaged in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat on Friday announced that the three services will carry out a series of activities to thank the "Corona Warriors".

The thanks-giving activities will start with laying of wreaths at the police memorial in Delhi and in several other cities on Sunday morning to honour the police personnel deployed in enforcement of the nationwide lockdown, officials said.

It will be followed by fly-pasts by fighter and transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force, covering a sizeable number of cities and towns across the country between 10 AM and 11 AM, officials said.

"These aircraft will cover major towns starting from Srinagar to Thiruvananthapuram and Dibrugarh to Kutch. Helicopters from the IAF and Indian Navy will fly over hospitals treating coronavirus patients and shower petals as a tribute to the corona warriors," Army Spokesperson Col Aman Anand said.

He said some of the aircraft will be flown as low as 500 metres so that people can witness the fly-pasts from the safety of their homes.

"The aerial salute to Corona Warriors will be planned over Delhi between 1000-1030 hrs. Fighter aircraft formations, comprising of Sukhoi-30 MKI, MiG-29 and Jaguar will be flying over Rajpath and will orbit over Delhi will be visible to the residents from rooftops," said Ministry of Defence.

"Additionally, helicopters are planned to carry out petal drop over Police War Memorial at 0900 hours followed by Delhi hospitals involved in providing relief to patients of Covid-19 between 1000 - 1030 hours. The list of hospitals includes AllMS, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, GTB Hospital, Loknayak Hospital, RML Hospital, Safdarjang Hospital, Ganga Ram Hospital, Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital, Max Saket, Rohini Hospital, Apollo Indraprastha Hospital&Army Hospital R&R," the Ministry further said.

Military bands will play "patriotic tunes" outside various civil hospitals treating coronavirus patients to express gratitude to doctors, nurses and paramedics, he said.

"46 ICG ships will carry out illumination, fire green flares and sound ships siren at 25 locations covering the coastline of 7,516 km, tomorrow. About 10 helicopters will also shower flower petals on Covid-19 hospitals at five locations," said Indian Coast Guard (ICG) officials.

Separately, Indian Navy helicopters would shower petals on hospitals treating coronavirus patients at Mumbai, Goa, Kochi and Vizag between 10 AM and 10:30 AM.

Navy officials said the Western Naval Command will illuminate five naval ships from 7:30 PM to 11:59 PM off Gateway of India in Mumbai.

They would display banners like "India Salutes Corona Warriors" and will sound the siren of the ships and fire flares at 7:30 PM at anchorage. Additionally, the Naval air stations at Goa would organise a human chain on the runway to honour the 'corona warriors'.

The Eastern Naval Command will illuminate two ships at anchorage from 7:30 pm to midnight at Visakhapatnam coast.

Anand said Indian Coast Guard ships will be seen at 24 places including in Porbandar, Okha, Ratnagiri, Dahanu, Murud, Goa, New Mangalaore, Kavarati, Karaikal, Chennai, Krishnapatnam, Nizamapatanam, Puducherry, Kakinada, Paradip, Sagar Island, Port Blair, Diglipur, Mayabundur, Hut bay and Campbel Bay.

"The nation stood together and showed resilience in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. On behalf of armed forces, we want to thank all the corona warriors -- doctors, nurses, sanitation workers, police, home guards, delivery boys and media," Gen Rawat said on Friday.