Bengaluru airport springs back to life after 2 months
Vihaan Sharma, a 5-year-old boy, travelled alone from Delhi to Bengaluru
After almost two months of hiatus, the first domestic flight to Ranchi from Bengaluru flew at 05:15 am and an Indigo flight from Chennai made its first arrival at 8 am.
Approximately, 60 departures and 54 arrivals were scheduled at Kempegowda International Airport. Till 9 am, five arrivals and 16 departures were recorded.
However, 32 flights by Indigo, Spice Jet and Vistara to Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Chennai were cancelled due to restrictions imposed by the respective State governments. Some passengers lamented on the social media about the eleventh hour cancellations.
Vihaan Sharma, a fiveyear-old boy, travelled alone from Delhi, where he stayed with his grandparents, He was received by his mother. Sharma will be put under home quarantine as mandated by the state government.
On day one of the resumption of operations, more than 40 flights were from red zone.
Passengers from high prevalence states like Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu will be under seven days of institutional quarantine in government designated hotels. They will be tested on the fifth and seventh days of arrival and if found negative they will be asked to undergo home quarantine for a week.
The government has mandated home quarantine of 14 days for passengers from all other states.
However, there will be no quarantine for business passengers bringing a negative test report, obtained from a ICMRapproved lab two days prior to the date of travel Medical professionals have to undergo home quarantine for 14 days while institutional quarantine of 14 days is for members of defence, para-military, railways, DRDO and other PSUs at designated guest houses or the quarantine facility of the concerned organisation.
While it is mandatory to download Aarogya Setu application in the mobile, the standard operating procedure (SOP) introduced by the state government, includes obtaining of an E-pass from Seva Sindhu portal.
At the departure gates, the passenger will undergo thermal scan and must show the Aarogya Setu app’s ‘You are safe’ message. CISF personnel will verify the boarding pass and government identity cards.
The staff attending on passengers with special needs was mandated to wear protective gear. While the Director General of Civil Aviation has mandated one hand and one checked-in baggage at the airline bag drop counters, a transparent partition has been installed.
While there were apprehensions about passengers taking Paracetamol tablets to bring down body temperature, sources said that the earlier passengers were not caught during the thermal screening for fear of isolation but now all passengers will be put under quarantine.