29-10-2020

Air bubble arrangement between Bangladesh and India inaugurated! After months of lockdown and suspension of flights, the air bubble between India and Bangladesh was inaugurated by High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Vikram Doraiswami and Bangladesh�s Civil Aviation Authority Chairman Air Vice Marshal Mafidur Rahman on Wednesday at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka. To mark the resumption of the air travel arrangements, two flights operated by US-Bangla Airlines left from Dhaka to Kolkata and Chennai. The news is set to come as a relief to the nationals of Bangladesh, who have been requesting urgent access to India, especially for medical purposes.

Speaking at the occasion, Doraiswami said that most tourists from Bangladesh head to India, especially for medical purposes. The resumption of the bilateral travel arrangements would help such tourists and also aid in furthering friendly ties between the two nations, he added. From Bangladesh, three airlines would be operating. These are US-Bangla Airlines, NovoAir and Biman Bangladesh. From the Indian side, five carriers, including GoAir, IndiGo, Air India, Vistara and SpiceJet, would be operating flights to Bangladesh.

Flights from Bangladesh would originate from Dhaka and arrive at Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata, while Indian flights would be flying to Dhaka from Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.

As per the guidelines for air travel mentioned on the website of High Commission of India to Bangladesh, the following passengers would be allowed to travel from Bangladesh to India:

1. Bangladeshi nationals: At present, the Bangladesh nationals would be able to apply for all the existing visas except for tourist visas. Other than that, Diplomatic or official Bangladesh passport holders would be exempted from needing a visa to travel to India, in accordance with the existing bilateral agreements.

2. All Indian nationals

3. OCI cardholders

Apart from that, the following instructions must be adhered to:

* Passengers would have to submit a self-reporting form, available on the Air Suvidha portal of the Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi website. This form must be submitted at least 3 days, ie, 72 hours before the date of travel.

* Passengers would also need to submit an undertaking confirming that they would undergo 14 days of mandatory quarantine after arriving in India. Of these, 7 days would mandatorily be institutional quarantine, the cost of which would need to be borne by the passengers themselves. The remaining 7 days of isolation would be at home, with proper self-monitoring of health.

* In order to seek exemption from institutional quarantine, passengers would have to be among these categories � pregnant women, death in the family, parents accompanied by children below 10 years of age, serious illness (for which description must be provided), or negative certificate for COVID-19 test (only RT-PCR). To seek exemption, passengers must apply at the Air Suvidha portal at least 72 hours before boarding, and the government�s decision, communicated via online portal, would be final.