Chiefs Of Indian Armed Forces Pay Tribute At Police Memorial; Here's Full Detail Of Thanksgiving Drill for Corona Warriors

After wreath-laying ceremony in Police Memorial Delhi and in several other cities, Indian Air Force conducted fly-pasts by fighter jets and transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force, covering a sizeable number of cities and towns across the country.

(Photo by David Talukdar/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

New Delhi: All three services of the Indian Armed Forces displayed solidarity with the corona warriors who are working at the frontline to fight the pandemic in country on Sunday.  The thanks-giving activities have been started off with laying of wreaths at the police memorial in Delhi and in several other cities on Sunday morning to honour the police personnel deployed for enforcement of the nationwide lockdown, officials said. 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. 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".

Haryana: Indian Army band performs outside Government Hospital, Panchkula to express gratitude towards medical professionals fighting #COVID19. pic.twitter.com/BbLw8S3hsh

— ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2020

Here are the details about the event. Beginning with wreath-laying ceremony in Police Memorial Delhi and in several other cities. It will be followed by fly-pasts by fighter jets and transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force, covering a sizeable number of cities and towns across the country beginning 10 AM. Cities where IAF will conduct flypasts: Cities where fighter jets of IAF will conduct fly-pasts include Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Patna and Lucknow. Transport aircraft of the force will carry out similar drills in a number of cities including Srinagar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jaipur, Bhopal, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Coimbatore and Thiruvananthapuram. Aircraft Formations: Fighter aircraft formations, comprising Sukhoi-30 MKI, MiG-29 and Jaguar, will be flying over Rajpath, Delhi's centrepiece boulevard, and will orbit over the city for around 30 minutes from 10 AM. "In addition, C-130 transport aircraft will follow a similar profile as fighters covering the entire Delhi and NCR region. The aircraft will be flying at an approximate height of 500 metres to 1000 metres keeping aerospace safety in mind especially in respect of bird activity," an IAF official said. He said the fly-past is combined with the training activity of the IAF. Helicopters from the IAF and Indian Navy will fly over hospitals treating coronavirus patients and shower petals as a tribute to the corona warriors, the officials said. Flower petals to be showered on hospitals: Flower petals will be dropped by IAF helicopters on select hospitals in multiple cities including Leh, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Gandhinagar, Mumbai, Jaipur, Varanasi, Patna, Lucknow, Bhopal, Ranchi, Raipur, Kolkata, Itanagar and Shillong, the IAF official said. In Delhi, IAF helicopters are scheduled to shower flower petals on a number of hospitals including AllMS, Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital, GTB, LNJP, Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, Safdarjung, Sir Ganga Ram hospital, Baba Saheb Ambedkar hospital, Max hospital in Saket, Apollo Indraprastha hospital and Army Research and Referral hospital. Also Watch:  Military activities: Military bands will play "patriotic tunes" outside various civil hospitals treating coronavirus patients across the country, the officials said. Navy Activities: Separately, Indian Navy helicopters will shower petals on Kasturba Gandhi hospital and naval medical hospital Ashwini in Mumbai, GMC and ESI hospitals in Goa, Ernakulam General hospital in Kochi, Government TB and Chest hospital in Vizag and GB Pant hospital in Port Blair. Navy officials said the Western Naval Command will illuminate five naval ships from 7:30 PM to 11:59 PM off the 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.