West Bengal Lockdown: Flight Services From Delhi, Mumbai & 4 Other Covid Hotspots Allowed Thrice A Week

The West Bengal government has announced an extension of the bi-weekly lockdown. The state will observe complete lockdown on September 7, 11, and 12. The government has also put restrictions on flight services from Kolkata airport. However, restrictions on flights coming in from six cities- Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Chennai, and Ahmedabad, will be being partially lifted from 1st September.

Image (Twitter/ ANI)

New Delhi: To control the rapidly increasing coronavirus cases in West Bengal, the Mamata Banerjee led state government on Wednesday announced the extension of the bi-weekly lockdown. The state government has ordered a complete lockdown for two days every week till the end of August. As per the latest announcements, there would be a complete state-wide lockdown on September 7, 11, and 12. The state has issued guidelines for the lockdown and it includes restrictions on flight services. In a letter to Union Ministry of Civil Aviation the state government has said ‘Ensure that there is no flight coming to or going out of any airport of West Bengal on 7th, 11th & 12th September as the state will observe complete lockdown on these three days.’ It also said that restrictions on flights coming in from six cities, viz. Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Chennai and Ahmedabad, will be being partially lifted from 1st September onwards. ‘Flights from these cities can come to the state thrice a week’ said the letter.

Ensure that there is no flight coming to or going out of any airport of West Bengal on 7th, 11th & 12th September as the state will observe complete lockdown on these three days: West Bengal Government in a letter to Union Ministry of Civil Aviation pic.twitter.com/a2mlH6zTLG

— ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2020

Flights from these cities were suspended from July 6 till till August 31 as a measure to contain the spread of the Coronavirus infection. Banerjee had also indicated the same during a press conference on Wednesday. The CM had also expressed that the state has no issues in restoring the local trains and metro rail services in and around Kolkata after maintaining a physical distance between passengers. The West Bengal government which was earlier planning to reopen schools on September 5 if the Covid-19 situation improved has put away the though and said that schools and colleges would continue to remain shut till September 20.