A day before the Civil Aviation Ministry is scheduled to resume domestic air travel across India, Maharashtra Chief Minster Uddhav Thackeray had aid that the state is not fully ready for the move and would require some time to do preparations before starting domestic flights.
In a LIVE address to the state on Sunday afternoon, Chief Minister had said that "Today morning, I spoke to civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri. I recognize the need of opening air travel but for that, we need some time to do preparations before resuming domestic flights."
Maharashtra till date has continued to be the worst-hit COVID state recording the highest number of cases in the country. As per the latest updates, the state reported 2,608 new cases on Saturday, taking toll to 47,190.
Witnessing the sharp increase in the number of daily cases, CM Uddhav Thackeray said that whose state has 47,190 out of 1,31,868 coronavirus cases in the country, can not lift the lockdowck even by May 31. In such situation, larger movement of people requires more planing and time to do preparations.
"The next 15 days would be crucial. A lot of movement of people is expected, anticipating more cases as well. So things can open up only gradually. Before we resume air travel, the increasing number of coronavirus cases in he state will also need to be factored in before movement of people can be taken into account," Uddhav Thackeray said.
Earlier this week, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had announced that domestic civil aviation will resume operations in a calibrated manner from Monday 25th May 2020. "All airports and air carriers are being informed to be ready for operations from 25th May," Puri said.
Ever since the imposition of the nationwide lockdown in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak in the country on March 25, passenger air services were suspended for both scheduled domestic and international flights.