The second day of the bi-weekly lockdown, imposed in the state to curb the spread of Covid-19, was enforced strictly in Kolkata with all modes of public transport remaining suspended while all markets remained shut.
Violation of the lockdown restrictions was witnessed in some towns and rural areas in the state.
The city wore a deserted look as all public transport, government and private offices, banks and other commercial establishments, barring those dealing with essential services, were closed due to the lockdown.
However, though flight operations in and out of the Kolkata international airport remained suspended for the day, Kolkata airport authorities announced that 129 passengers arrived from Dubai on an Indigo flight.
With a lockdown prevailing in the city, the airport authorities assisted the passengers who were stranded at the airport.
Food and water were provided to them.
It is with the intervention of the chief minister Mamata Banerjee that St Xavier’s College (Kolkata) Alumni Association based in Dubai, brought back yet another group of 80 Indians stranded in the Middle East country owing to lockdown exercise since the end of March to India on Friday. Earlier in June, with the initiatives of the same association another special flight had also brought back around 50 Indians to the country.
Pratip Das, one of the passengers, said, “We are thankful to the chief minister. With her initiatives St Xavier’s College (Kolkata) Alumni Association in Dubai and Purbanchalio Prabasi Milan, an organisation of non-resident Indians, brought us back to our country.” The association has sponsored tickets of 50 passengers in the special flight on Thursday, he said.
Many of these passengers hailed from Siliguri and adjoining towns. They have also reached Siliguri after the state administration arranged a special bus for them.
The airport authorities have also announced that proper sanitisation of the bags were carried out while a total of 21 self service touchless control kiosks have been introduced in the airport. These are known as common use self service kiosks (CUSS) and are operated through artificial intelligence.
Passengers will be able to choose their seats using the kiosk and can connect the kiosk with their smartphones. This will ensure there are no long queues at the airline checkin counters, said an airport official. Meanwhile, long- distance trains were rescheduled and essential services like medicine shops and health establishments remained open as these were kept out of the purview of the complete shutdown.
Petrol pumps are also allowed to remain open on the lockdown days.
Police security was airtight and several violators were detained by the police. Around 2,687 people were arrested from across the state, 541 of them in Kolkata, on the charge of violation of the lockdown guidelines and safety precautions.
There will be a complete lockdown on 27 and 31 August. West Bengal’s COVID-19 caseload mounted to 1, 29,119 on Thursday with the highest single-day spike of 3,197 infections, the state’s health department said.
The death toll in the state rose to 2,634 after 53 people succumbed to the virus since Wednesday.