Amid surging cases of COVID-19 cases in the country, the Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday informed that the airport authorities have been directed to put passengers on the ‘no-fly’ list if they do not follow the SoPs and guidelines to curb COVID-19.
Speaking to ANI, Puri said, “We can win the fight against COVID-19 but the negligence of some people is creating problems. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has been instructed to crack the whip.”
“We can issue SoPs and guidelines in regard to COVID-19, some people are being careless. We have started putting people on the no-fly list,” the Minister said. “When you compare the air travel to surface route, traveling by buses or train, air travel is much safer,” he added.
India has reported 59,118 new COVID-19 cases, 32,987 recoveries, and 257 deaths on Thursday, as per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s data.
“The UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme produced connectivity and affordability. We have fare-bands. The lower fare-band is a little more than that of the fare of the lower class AC car in a train,” Puri told ANI.
“I am 100 percent confident that the UDAN scheme is a roaring success. We are building another 100 airports. We have more than 300 operational routes which will be increased to 1000,” Puri said.
We are winning the fight against Corona. However, there are few people who are being careless and we have started putting people on the no-fly list. Air travel is much safer than surface route travels: Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri (25.03) pic.twitter.com/6DnrHkGSKw
— ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2021
The Minister said that demand for airports has been increased and many airports are being privatized. “The land for the development of an airport is to be provided by the state government. In Darbhanga Airport, earlier, there was no place to park the aircraft. Eventually, the facilities are increasing and by creating a bigger terminal and by getting more lands, we will be solving the problems,” he added.
All flight operations at Darbhanga airport in Bihar commenced in November last night, which has been developed under the UDAN initiative.
UDAN is a regional airport development and “Regional Connectivity Scheme” of the Government of India which was started in April 2017.