Amid the coronavirus outbreak on a surge, the West Bengal government on has barred flights from six cities namely Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Chennai and Ahmedabad as a measure to contain the deadly virus.
“It is informed that no flights shall operate to Kolkata from Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Chennai & Ahmedabad from 6th to 19th July 2020 or till further order whichever is earlier. Inconvenience caused is regretted,” the Kolkata Airport Authority said in a tweet.
“The temporary restriction on arriving flights to Kolkata Airport from 6 cities viz Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Nagpur & Ahmedabad is on the request of State Govt. to restrict movement from high prevalence cities of coronavirus cases in order to contain the spread of Covid-19,” it said.
As per the reports, the West Bengal government had written to the secretary of the Civil Aviation Ministry to stop the flights from Indore and Surat as well.
“West Bengal is also witnessing a steep rise in cases. A large number of cases has been reported from people coming in the State from outside with infection. Government of West Bengal has decided to stop or curtail the movement of incoming flights and trains into the State,” the letter said.
Further, the state also wanted to limit the flights from other cities to one flight per week. However, there has been o response received from the Civil Aviation Ministry on it yet.
The flight operations in the country were stopped since March 25 – the day when the nationwide lockdown was imposed. Later on May 25, domestic flights were allowed to operate.
According to the Ministry of Health, there are overall 20,488 cases of coronavirus reported in West Bengal out of which 6,200 are active cases. There were 717 deaths reported due to the virus in the state.