SOP 3.0 unlikely to give a fillip to ‘Udan’ as domestic flights set to start from Monday

MANGALURU: SOP 3.0 for entry of persons from other states into Karnataka is unlikely to see a mad rush of travellers including business travellers queue up for domestic air travel resuming on Monday.
The catch lies in sections 4 – a, b and c of SOP that Commissionerate of health and family welfare and Ayush services released late on Friday. It mandates a total of 14-days of institutional and home quarantine and different set of rules for business travellers.
While above home/institutional quarantine applies for people returning from high prevalence states that the state government has notified including via road/rail/air with home quarantine alone for pregnant women, children below 10, senior citizens above 80 and terminally ill, others for low prevalence states need to undergo 14 days of home quarantine. Businessmen coming for urgent work too have a lot of leg work to do under section c of the new SOP.
For starters, they need to bring negative test report of Covid-19 from an ICMR-approved lab and it should not be more than two-days prior to date of travel. If they do not have such certificate, they must undergo Covid-19 test and stay in paid institutional quarantine till test results come. After negative test results they will be allowed to finish their work and return. If their stay is beyond 5-days, they must go to fever clinic and get themselves examined.
An auto extension of another five-days is granted if found asymptomatic. Suresh Kumar, nodal minister for Covid-19 briefing in Karnataka said the SOP 3.0 was reframed after deliberations at highest level involving the chief minister himself. “The meeting has taken into consideration specific needs of business travellers who are used to jet setting between cities across states,” the minister said, adding it could be further refined based on their needs.
Pradeep G Pai, leading city-based businessman said while the SOP is fine as far as air-travel within the state is concerned, it is a tad cumbersome for inter-state air travel, especially with the quarantine part. V V Rao, airport director, Mangaluru International Airport told TOI that he has shared this SOP with airlines concerned and requested them to make known sections 4 a-c of the new SOP clear to their patrons to avoid last minute confusions.