After massive operations to evacuate stranded Jammu and Kashmir residents back home from various parts of the country through surface transport especially the railways, air operations resumed this morning with 170 stranded people arriving at Jammu Airport through five flights.

The first flight with 31 passengers on board arrived at the airport here at 8:50 am, followed by four more flights at their scheduled times subsequently. 

The Airport authorities have put in place all requisite arrangements and facilities for resuming the flight operations so that all guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) are strictly adhered to.

Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Sanjeev Verma, Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, Sarita Chouhan, Commissioner Jammu Municipal Corporation, Avny lavasa, Regional Transport Officer, Dhanter Singh, Director Airport Jammu Dr. Pravat Ranjan, Joint Director Information, Namrata Dogra and Principal Government Medical College Jammu, Dr Renu Sharma were present at the Airport to receive the passengers.

“All passengers went through thermal screening test at the exit point after maintaining necessary preventive protocols like social distancing and wearing masks”, Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Sarita Chauhan said while monitoring the arrangements at the Airport.

Deputy Commissioner informed that the concerned authorities filled the forms of the arriving passengers with proper information for opting either free or paid quarantine service being arranged by the government.  During boarding and travel, it is being ensured that all passengers use masks and follow hand and respiratory hygiene to contain spread of the Virus, she added. She further said that adequate arrangements for sample collection and proper transportation of the passengers to the quarantine centers have been made by the administration.

Pertinently, the government has issued additional instructions, modifications and exemptions to the procedure prescribed in the earlier circulars regarding 100 per cent RTPCR testing of all incoming passengers by train or air and quarantine procedure to be followed. 

As per the modified quarantine procedure, pregnant women in the last trimester with a doctor’s certificate of pregnancy; cancer patients on chemotherapy; chronically ill patients discharged from a hospital after a surgical procedure; dialysis patients with a doctor’s certificate of being on dialysis; mothers with infant below 1 year; children below 10 years travelling alone without a family member; Government of India personnel on bonafied government duty and passengers/travellers with an RTPCR test negative certificate from a ICMR approved laboratory/testing facility, not older than two days (48 hours) before the arrival date arriving by air, rail or any other means from outside the UT to J&K will be sampled on arrival for RTPCR testing and sent to Home quarantine for 14 days; and if their test result is positive, they will be brought to a COVID hospital for recovery and treatment.

With Government resuming domestic flight operations across the country, six domestic flights carrying about 562 passengers, who were stranded at different parts of the country landed here today at Srinagar International Airport. 

The arrival of flights started with the landing of Air Asia flight at 7:25am. All passengers who arrived at the airport were thoroughly screened for COVID-19 and their samples taken. 

The Government had made elaborate arrangements for the arrival, screening, sampling and dispatch of passengers. The airport has been equipped to receive the passengers strictly following the procedures and guidelines prescribed by the Union Ministries of Civil Aviation and Health and Family Welfare. 

All passengers, on arrival, by air today and for coming days, shall be kept in institutional or home quarantine for prescribed period, sampling will be done of all passengers and test samples will be sent to SKIMS for results. Those passengers who test negative shall be sent to home and those testing positive, if any, will be sent to hospital for further treatment.

The passengers were received at the airport by Principal Secretary, Housing & Urban Development, Dheeraj Gupta alongwith Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, P K Pole, Secretary, Cultural &Tourism, Zubair Ahmad, Deputy Commissioner, Budgam, Tariq Hussain Ganie, Vice Chairman LAWDA, Tufail Matoo, Director Industries &Commerce, Mahmood Ahmad Shah, Director Health Services Kashmir, Dr. Sameer Matoo, SSP Budgam, Amod Ashok Nagpurie, Director, Airport Authority Srinagar, Santosh Dhoke and other concerned officers/ officials.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Dheeraj Gupta said that all facilities and other arrangements have been put in place at the airport by the Government including SOPs for receiving the passengers. He said that for the convenience of passengers, special help desks have been established in order to capture first hand information from the passengers after their disembarking. He further added that for sample collection from the passengers for covid-19 test, 30 Test Koisks have been setup at the airport, besides adequate transport facilities by SRTC have been made available at the airport for these passengers. 

Other occasion, Deputy Commissioner, Budgam, Tariq Hussain Ganai informed that passengers arriving at the airport are being screened for Covid-19 tests, their sampling is also being done as per the prescribed protocol. Regarding other passengers, the DC said there are exemptions for seriously ill patients, pregnant women and the passengers suffering from other chronic diseases having symptoms of any other health issue who will be allowed to go for home quarantine.