Kolkata: Direct flights from Delhi, Mumbai and other COVID hotspots to resume from Sept 1

Direct flights to Kolkata from six COVID hotspots will resume from next month. This was announced by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently. Flights from these places will be allowed three days a week from next month.

The embargo on flights from the said cities, i.e., Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Chennai, and Nagpur that has been in order since July 6. However, no flights will be operational to and from Kolkata on September 7, 11, and 12 when the state will be under total lockdown.
The said decision is expected to bring the much-needed relief to people from Kolkata, who are stranded abroad as well as these cities. Although people with urgent travel requirements have been flying via other cities to Kolkata, it created more hassles, more cost, and risk of spreading infection. Therefore, people now wanting to reach Kolkata and those, who are stranded abroad, will be able to take Vande Bharat flights to Mumbai and Delhi, and then fly to Kolkata directly.

Referring to the decision, the Chief Minister stated that they have received several requests to resume flight operations from six COVID hotspot states, reason why, flight services from these six states will be resuming thrice a week from next month.
Apart from this, the Chief Minister also allowed metro railway services to resume, with precautionary and social distancing norms to be in place, comes as a big relief for locals.

She further added that local train services may also start in a phased manner, i.e., one fourth at a time, and that railway authorities can discuss the matter with the state government.