News

IndiGo to resume direct flights on Kolkata-Shillong route from Feb 1

Private carrier IndiGo will resume direct flights between Kolkata and Shillong from February 1 with the Meghalaya government reopening the state for tourists after remaining closed for almost 10 months due to COVID-19, Airports Authority of India (AAI) said on Friday. The northeastern state was connected with Delhi last month by direct flight services of regional airline flybig. "After long suspension of their flight due to #COVID19 pandemic, M/s Indigo @IndiGo6E is all set to resume its Kolkata flt (flight) from 1st Feb. Booking is started. "This is second major boost to tourism in #Meghalaya after Delhi flt (flight) by @flybigairlines," AAI Shillong Airport authorities said on Twitter. IndiGo had commenced operations to and from Shillong -- its 54th domestic destination-- in July 2019 under the regional connectivity scheme.

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Indian Railways' Aman Lodge – Matheran services giving a boost to tourism in Maharashtra

Indian Railways' Central Railway zone with its shuttle services for passengers between Aman Lodge and Matheran has been instrumental in popularizing Matheran as a major tourist destination. Matheran is the nearest and the most popular tourist destination for the citizens of Mumbai, no wonder that in course of the covid unlock period tourists are flocking to relax in its natural environment. Central Railway has transported 53,679 passengers and 5,864 packages since it resumed operation in this section with 4 shuttle services on 04 November last year. Due to a steady increase in the number of tourists to this destination, services were gradually increased from 4 to 8 from14 November 2020, to 12 from 18 November 2020 and added a couple of more services making it a total of 14 services till date between Aman Lodge and Matheran. A senior railway official of Central Railway said,"These services, in addition to providing a comfortable journey to tourists, helping cheap and quick transportation of materials also. This has resulted in enhancing the railway earnings by Rs.34,15,582 during the period from November-2020 to till date." "These figures indicate the important role of Railways in providing a safe and comfortable travel to its passengers coming to this tourist destination, thereby providing livelihood to the locals thus contributing in improving the economy of Matheran," according to a statement by the Central Railway.

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Covid-19: Centre finalising shipping facilities for India's vaccination drive

The Union health ministry is finalising shipping arrangements for approved coronavirus vaccines from manufacturers to storage facilities across states in collaboration with the civil aviation ministry, officials said on Sunday, as the government prepares to begin vaccinating priority groups from January 16. India’s vaccination drive, the world’s largest immunisation exercise against Covid-19, will kick off on January 16 with priority to about 30 million health care and frontline workers. The government plans to vaccinate 270 million others in six to eight months. “Arrangements are being made for shipping the vaccine supplies after orders are issued in coming days without wasting any time. Expeditious transport of vaccine is being ensured from state vaccine stores to last-mile cold chain points by all states and Union territories,” said Manohar Agnani, additional secretary, health ministry, during the Union health minister’s review of preparedness. The finance ministry has so far approved ₹480 crore for the operational costs of the exercise. “The money is being disbursed among states according to the beneficiary load to fund the operational cost of the vaccination for the first 10 million beneficiary vaccinations,” said Agnani. Till January 9, data of about 8 million health care workers was registered on CoWIN, a digital platform to track the status of the vaccination drive. The Drug Controller General of India has approved two vaccines for emergency use – Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield, which is manufactured locally by the Serum Institute of India, and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, which has been cleared for restricted use in emergency situations in “clinical trial mode”. The Union health ministry on Sunday held a video conference with state representatives to review the functioning of CoWIN software that forms the backbone of the last-mile vaccine administration. The meeting was chaired by Ram Sewak Sharma, chairman of the empowered group on technology and data management to combat Covid-19 and member, National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration of Covid-19. “There cannot be any proxies for Aadhaar authentication. It is extremely important to clearly identify the person who is getting vaccinated and keep a digital record...,” he said.

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Tourists play with snow, dance, enjoy themselves at J-K's Dehra ki Gali

After heavy snowfall, tourists played with the snow, danced and enjoyed themselves at Dehra ki Gali (DKG), a tourist spot in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, on Thursday. "We are here with our family. DKG is a beautiful place to visit. Though we cannot travel ahead due to the roadblock, we are enjoying the snowfall here," a tourist told ANI. DKG is a famous tourist spot with snow-covered hills in Thanna Mandi Tehsil of Rajouri district. "Snowfall occurs in Dehradun too but here it is something new and better. I came here to appreciate its beauty," said Amish another tourist who came from Dehradun. As for local issues, residents of the areas face problems such as inadequate power supply. "There is a huge problem with electricity in the district. We appeal to the administration to solve it. The temperature at night here falls to two degree Celsius," Shahzad, a resident of Mandi, told ANI. The Union territory has witnessed heavy snowfall during the past several days. As a result, vehicular movement has been stopped on the national highway. Many landslides have also been reported during rain and snowfall.

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Gujarat Tourism Development Society to organise tourism awards on Jan 11

Tourism Development Society of Gujarat, a Tourism promotion society of private industry stakeholders in the state, will organise their fourth annual Tourism Awards Gujarat 2020 at Gandhinagar, Gujarat on January 11. Vijay Rupani, Chief Minister of Gujarat will be the Chief Guest at the annual awards event to be held at the Gift City Club Gandhinagar. In the light of the Covid restrictions, the entry to the physical awards ceremony will be restricted to the key organisers, dignitaries and the award nominees. The event will be streamed live through different social media channels, said Ankit Bajaj, one of the organisers of the event. One of the prestigious award events in the state in terms of its participation, the key objective of this event is to recognise and encourage tourism stakeholders and instill a sense of belongingness in the “smallest of the small stakeholder” in the industry, said Manish Sharma, CMD of Akshar Travels, one of the promoters of the annual event. “We promote our event as the IFFA of the tourism industry. More than 2,000 people participated in our last awards event,” Sharma said. Irrespective of the rich cultural heritage, diverse landscape, nature, wildlife, tourism has never received the attention it deserves in India. Sharma said that the purpose of the annual event is to highlight tourism as a glamour industry to gain attention of the policy makers. Sharma said that the best of heritage destinations, hotels, tour operators, travel agencies, beaches, spiritual destinations, will be recognised at the awards. Bajaj said that eminent people from the industry globally will address the Tourism Summit & Awards 2020.

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Singapore considering relaxation of COVID restrictions for vaccinated travellers

Singapore has proved its efficiency to a great extend in controlling the spread of COVID every since its relaxed lockdown rules in June 2020. By way of a strong contact tracing system, strict public compliance, and an extensive ban on foreign travel, daily cases of Coronavirus infections have been nearly zero. According to the latest reports, the top officials in Singapore are now planning to lift all the above restrictions before May 2021 when the yearly World Economic Forum will start in Asia. Lawrence Wong, co-head of Singapore's virus taskforce, announced in a televised statement posted on the social media that Singapore is considering relaxing travel restrictions for travellers who have been vaccinated, provided the vaccines have shown to significantly control the spread of COVID. Reportedly, this announcement has come as Singapore turned out to be one of the first Asian nations to start its national vaccination programme recently. News has it that until the stay-at-home (SHN) or quarantine rules are relaxed, all vaccinated passengers and all other tourists arriving in Singapore must follow the prevailing COVID-19 SHN rules. As of now, people visiting Singapore from low-risk nation must be quarantined for seven days and undergo a COVID test before reaching Singapore and also before their quarantine ends. Other travellers must be quarantined at the authorised government facilities, and also submit their COVID test reports. Travellers should also wear electronic monitoring device during quarantine.

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