Dense fog disrupts flights at Kolkata airport
Flight services went haywire on Sunday as the city woke up to a chilly morning, enveloped in a thick fog with a significant drop in visibility.
With strict Covid protocols to come into effect from tomorrow in the state, the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International airport, Kolkata, has announced that a host of measures will also be taken by airport authorities from 3 January and which includes mandatory Covid tests for passengers of international flights coming to Kolkata from ‘non at-risk’ countries.
Kolkata airport being the prime airport in the city that receives passengers visiting Bengal from all corners of the world, airport authorities have said that they are closely coordinating with the state health department to ensure a watertight system is implemented at the airport to prevent the spread of covid infection. The airport announced that from 3 January 2022, as per directives of the state government, all direct flights from the United Kingdom to Kolkata has been temporarily suspended and until further orders. As of now, Air India operates direct flights from Kolkata- London.
Further, the airport announced that random RTPCR testing of 10 per cent of passengers will be done and the rest 90 per cent shall undergo Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) at the arrival airport. Those found positive in that test will have to further undergo RT-PCR test as may be required by the health authorities. The RT PCR test previously was conducted for about two per cent of passengers.
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An airport official further confirmed that from 3rd January 2022, all passengers coming from other ‘non at risk’ countries by international flights to West Bengal will have to mandatorily undergo a test on arrival at their cost. It may be recalled that the airport in coordination with the state health department had set up facilities at the airport for Covid testing of passengers.
“We have placed ten RapidPCR test machines for the convenience of passengers. Exclusive conveyor belts for luggage collection have been marked for passengers coming from ‘at risk’ countries. Additionally, thermal screening for the international passengers is being performed” the airport authorities informed.
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