A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the extension of nationwide lockdown till May 3, 2020, the Ministry of Home Affairs has released guidelines for the lockdown. According to the document, domestic, international air travel of passengers will be prohibited until May 3. However, in case of some special purposes, inter and intra-state movements would be allowed. “All domestic and international air travel of passengers will remain prohibited, except for purposes enumerated in para 4 (ix), and for security purposes,” read the Ministry document. This means if there is a security threat or any other security purpose, air travel will be allowed.
Apart from this, all medical and veterinary personnel, nurses, lab technicians, para-medical staff, midwives, other hospital support services which includes ambulances as well, and scientists will be allowed to board a flight during the lockdown if required. It is to note that the restrictions on travel have been imposed on the back of increasing Coronavirus cases in India. Earlier, the lockdown was imposed till April 14, 2020 and therefore, the bookings were expected to resume from today. But as the latest announcement was made by the Prime Minister, the date to begin the operations has also been pushed till next month. A week ago, air passenger carriers like GoAir and Vistara had announced that they will be resuming their bookings from April 15 if another directive was not released (which has been released now).
Air India had suspended operations till April 30 before which is likely to extend by 3 days now as the new guidelines have come in. Meanwhile, upon Modi’s announcement, Civil Aviation Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted that the lockdown has been extended for good reasons and the aviation industry will consider resumption in operations for both international and domestic flights after May 3. “I understand the problems being faced by people who need to travel & request them to bear with us,” he added.
15/04/20 Pratishtha Nangia/Financial Express
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
Apart from this, all medical and veterinary personnel, nurses, lab technicians, para-medical staff, midwives, other hospital support services which includes ambulances as well, and scientists will be allowed to board a flight during the lockdown if required. It is to note that the restrictions on travel have been imposed on the back of increasing Coronavirus cases in India. Earlier, the lockdown was imposed till April 14, 2020 and therefore, the bookings were expected to resume from today. But as the latest announcement was made by the Prime Minister, the date to begin the operations has also been pushed till next month. A week ago, air passenger carriers like GoAir and Vistara had announced that they will be resuming their bookings from April 15 if another directive was not released (which has been released now).
Air India had suspended operations till April 30 before which is likely to extend by 3 days now as the new guidelines have come in. Meanwhile, upon Modi’s announcement, Civil Aviation Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted that the lockdown has been extended for good reasons and the aviation industry will consider resumption in operations for both international and domestic flights after May 3. “I understand the problems being faced by people who need to travel & request them to bear with us,” he added.
15/04/20 Pratishtha Nangia/Financial Express
0 comments:
Post a Comment