"We were under tremendous pressure for the last two months," VK Singh said (File)
Junior Aviation Minister Gen (retired) VK Singh on Monday said that there is tremendous pressure from the public to resume international scheduled flights.
Civil Aviation Minister had recently announced to resume international scheduled flights on December 15 after a gap of over two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We have tremendous pressure from the public to start international scheduled flights. We are taking all protocols and cautions. Anybody coming from outside, especially tourists, are being screened and tested at the airport. Only after checking the results, they are being allowed to go," Minister of State for Civil Aviation Retd Gen VK Singh told ANI.
Days after the government decided to resume scheduled international flights, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote a letter urging to suspend the international flights due to the emergence of a new strain of coronavirus.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the new COVID-19 variant 'Omicron'. In his letter, Mr Kejriwal urged the Prime Minister to halt flights to India from Omicron-affected countries.
When asked whether the government has taken an early decision on resuming international flight, Mr Singh replied, "No early decision has been taken to resume scheduled international flight. We were under tremendous pressure for the last two months. With due precautions we have planned to open international flights and still have to ensure that protocols are followed to protect people from the new strain."
He further assured that the ministry and concerned agencies were briefed about the resumption of scheduled international flights of all stakeholders.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)