Even as the Centre plans resumption of domestic flights from May 25, Maharashtra government on Saturday said that there will be no resumption of domestic flights in Mumbai. Explaining why the state government is not allowing flights in Mumbai, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said that getting passengers to come from a green zone to a red one putting them to risk of exposure doesn't make sense.
Taking to Twitter, Anil Deshmukh said that it’s extremely ill-advised to reopen airports in the red zone. "Mere thermal scanning of passengers inadequate w/o swabs. Impossible to have autos/cabs/buses ply in current circumstances. Adding positive passenger will add COVID stress to the red zone," he said.
He further said that getting passengers to come from a green zone to a red one putting them to risk doesn't make any sense. "Getting passengers to come from a green zone to a red one putting them to risk of exposure doesn't make sense. Keeping a busy airport up and running with all COVID-safety measures will need huge staff presence and compound risk in the red zone," Anil Deshmukh said.
As per the May 19 order of the state government extending the coronavirus-induced lockdown to May 31, all domestic and international air travel, except for domestic medical services, domestic air ambulance and for security purposes as permitted by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), will continue to remain prohibited across the state.
Earlier in its lockdown guidelines order, the Maharashtra Government had not allowed air travel during the lockdown period.
On Saturday, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, during a Facebook live session, said India will try to restart a good percentage of international passenger flights before August. All scheduled commercial passenger flights have been suspended in India since March 25 when the lockdown was announced.
