OUR CORRESPONDENT
ITANAGAR: Flight operations in Arunachal Pradesh resumed on Thursday after a gap of two months due to nationwide lockdown imposed to contain COVID-19 pandemic.
The first flight carrying only two passengers from Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati arrived at Pasighat airport in East Siang district via Tezpur at 9.35 am, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Dr Kinny Singh informed.
After two months of no flight operations across the country, domestic passenger flights resumed operations on May 25 with a reduced number. However, the Arunachal Pradesh government had decided to resume operation from Thursday.
The DC informed that details of the passengers were duly recorded and screened on arrival and were sent for paid quarantine facility at Pasighat.
"No relatives or friends of the passengers were allowed to visit the airport area," she said.
The DC added that the entire airport was disinfected as a protective measure.
East Siang Superintendent of Police (SP) Rajiv Ranjan Singh said that the newly issued guidelines by the union Civil Aviation Ministry for security was followed strictly as security personnel checked both the passengers without touching their body and luggage.
"Deployed security personnel were provided sanitizers, head shields and gloves and those who were near to the passengers were given PPE as safety measures," the SP added.
The flight to Pasighat will operate for three days a week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the sources added.
The last flight from the centurion town was operated on March 23 this year, before the nationwide lockdown began.