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As domestic flights were scheduled to begin from May 25 onwards, the fate of the flight operations of the states, including West Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and seemed uncertain until Sunday morning, as the three state governments had opposed the Center-of-flight of the resumption of the plan.
In a marathon meeting that was held from Sunday morning until late at night, with the governments of the states, the Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri negotiated the terms and conditions set forth by each state to convince them all to come on board the resumption of flight operations, the senior officials involved in the process, he said.
“Negotiations were held with the governments of the states and all of them came on board, as we also agreed to certain terms and conditions. State governments such as Maharashtra had a genuine concern, as it has the largest number of Covid-19 of the cases, but we agreed to run fewer flights to Mumbai. Only 25 flights will operate to Mumbai. In west Bengal also had concern due to the damage caused by the Cyclone Amphan and we agreed to delay flight operations with the state government,” the official said.
See ALSO | As the flight ops resume, Kolkata to stay out of the aviation map until Wednesday
Puri said that there will be a limited number of flights from Mumbai and West Bengal.
“It has been a long day of hard negotiations with various state governments to resume the operations of civil aviation in the country. With the exception of Andhra Pradesh, which will begin in 26/5 and West Bengal in 28/5, domestic flights will recommence across the country from tomorrow. Starting tomorrow, there will be a limited number of flights to Mumbai and as per approved ⅓ hours from other airports in the state. Limited operations in West Bengal will begin on May 28, 2020,” Puri twitter.
“At the request of the government of the state, of the operations in Andhra Pradesh will recommence on a limited scale since May 26. For the state of Tamil Nadu, there will be a maximum of 25 arrivals in Chennai, but there is no limit on the number of outputs. For other airports in TN flights will operate as in other parts of the country,” he added.
On Saturday, Maharashtra and West Bengal had warned the Centre against the resumption of flight operations from the 25th of May.
“It is very unfortunate with the reopening of the airports in the red zone. The mere thermal scanning of passengers, inadequate w/or cotton swabs. Impossible to have cars/cabs/buses layers in the current circumstances. The positive addition passengers add Covid-19 stress to the red areas. #MaharashtraGovtCares,” Maharashtra Minister of the interior Anil Deshmukh had tweeted, adding that allows passengers to travel from green areas to red areas and “put the risk of exposure is meaningless.”
West bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had also appealed to the Centre to postpone the flight operations in West Bengal in view of the Cyclone Amphan that has ravaged parts of the state. In guidelines issued late Sunday by the state government, he said, “upon arrival, A health assessment must be carried out for all passengers. Asymptomatic passengers will be permitted to go with the advice that they self-monitor their health for 14 days.”
The state government has decided that the Kolkata and Bagdogra Airport does not operate flights to the 28 of May as they have asked the government to stop flights until the 30th of May.
State of Tamil Nadu, the chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami had on Saturday also warns Puri, asking him to avoid domestic flights in the state until May 31. On the morning of Sunday, the state government issued guidelines on the resumption of domestic flights. The state of the standard operating procedures (SOPs) will be in addition to the instructions of the civil aviation ministry and will include a 14-day home quarantine for asymptomatic flyers, and institutional isolation for those who do not have the facilities to quarantine at home.
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