Domestic flight operations in Kolkata to resume from Thursday

Domestic flight operations to and from Kolkata will resume from Thursday after a gap of two months due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Though domestic flight operations across the country began on May 25, it could not be restarted in Kolkata as the state machinery was involved in the relief and restoration work after the extremely severe Cyclone Amphan whiplashed many areas of the state.

On Thursday, 10 flights will take off from Kolkata and an equal number will arrive in the city, sources at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport said.

The first flight from Kolkata would leave for Guhawati at 6.05 am, the sources said.

Domestic flight operations will also resume at Bagdogra airport in north Bengal too.

The West Bengal government had recently come up with a set of guidelines for people arriving in the state in domestic flights. According to it, those entering the state from Thursday must submit a self-declaration form stating that they had not tested positive for COVID-19 in the past two months, according to an advisory of the health department.

The passengers will also need to undergo health screening after they arrive at the airport, the advisory said on Monday.

Asymptomatic passengers will be permitted to go with the advice that they shall self-monitor their health for 14 days. In case they develop any symptom, they shall inform the local medical officer or the state call centre, the advisory said.

All symptomatic passengers will be taken to the nearest health facility for testing, it said.

Regular sanitisation, disinfection shall be done at the airport, the advisory stated, adding that there should be adequate availability of sanitisers at different points.

Arrangements for contact-less travel with social-distancing norms have been readied at the city airport to keep passengers safe from COVID-19, a top airport official said on Wednesday.

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An "absolute contact-less procedure" with "least possible surface touch" will be provided to passengers from the time of entering the airport till boarding the flight under the new arrangement.

Director of N S C Bose International Airport Kaushik Bhattacharya had earlier said, "We have taken all measures to keep the entire operations touch-free. We will entirely go by the directives of the Centre in this regard."