Air Fares To Be Capped For Next 3 Months, Delhi-Mumbai Max Fare Rs 10,000

Air Fares To Be Capped For Next 3 Months, Delhi-Mumbai Max Fare Rs 10,000

The phased resuming of air travel comes as India’s cases of highly contagious COVID-19 topped 1.12 lakh cases, as per the latest data.

New Delhi| The Ministry of Civil Aviation has requested all air carriers to comply with the lower and upper limits of fares recommended by it amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

At a recently held press conference, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said fare structure has been determined such that both airlines and flyers benefit from the ticket price.

The pricing has been decided basis the flight period, which is divided into 7 sections:

1. less than 40 min

2. 40-60min

3. 60-90 min

4. 90-120 min

5.120-150 min

6. 150-180 min

7.180-210 min

On the most active route like Delhi-Mumbai sector, pricing will be capped from Rs 3,500 to Rs 10,000. This fares will be applicable from May 25 to August 24. To check that airlines are not selling tickets at a higher price, 40% of the tickets will be sold below the mean average of Rs 3,500- Rs 10,000 price capping.

From Monday, airlines will be permitted to reopen about a third of their services, within rules that include no meals onboard, temperature checks for all passengers and full protective gear for the crew, the Centre said.

 As Mumbai Coronavirus Cases Blow Up, CAPF Deployed In MMR

The total cases in India surged to 1,12,359 including over 42,000 cured/discharged or migrated and 3,435 deaths amid lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19.

In the past 24 hours, 132 casualties were recorded. 5,611 new cases of COVID-19 were registered in the last 24 hours, highest so far.

Currently, there are 63,624 active COVID-19 patients in the country.

India is the 11th most-affected nation in terms of the total number of confirmed cases, overtaking China.

Statue of Unity on 'sale' for Rs 30,000 crore to fight COVID-19, says online ad; case filed

Statue of Unity on 'sale' for Rs 30,000 crore to fight COVID-19, says online ad; case filed

In a rather intriguing incident, an advertisement on OLX on Saturday stated that a person wanted to “sell” the Statue of Unity in Kevadiya in Narmada district for Rs 30,000 crore to meet the government’s expenses for hospitals and medical infrastructure to fight the Coronavirus outbreak.

A case has been filed against the unknown person in Gujarat for placing the online advertisement.

“Some unknown person placed an advertisement on OLX on Saturday stating he needs to sell the Statue of Unity for Rs 30,000 crore to meet the requirement of money to make hospitals and buy healthcare equipment,” a police officer said, quoting the First Information Report (FIR).

“The memorial’s authorities came to know of the issue after a newspaper ran an article, and approached the police. A cheating and forgery case was filed under the IPC (Indian Penal Code), Epidemic Diseases Act, and Information Technology Act,” police officer PT Chaudhary said.

Soon after it was posted, the advertisement was taken off the website.

“Despite not being authorised to sell government property, this unidentified person posted the advertisement on OLX to defame the government and mislead people,” said a statement by the chief administrator of the Statue of Unity.

Such an advertisement hurts the sentiments of several crore people who idolise Sardar Patel, it added.

Deputy Commissioner Nilesh Dubey said that the OLX had published the ad without verification.

The 182-metre statue, touted to be the tallest statue in the world, is a tribute to Sardar Vallabhbahi Patel, independent India’s first home minister as well as deputy Prime Minister. Patel, who was prominently known as the ‘Iron Man of India’, was responsible for the integration of several princely states into modern India.

It was was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2018 at Kevadia in the Narmada district of Gujarat on the 143rd birth anniversary of Sardar Patel.

The 597-feet tall Statue of Unity has been featured by the Time magazine in its second annual list of 2019 World’s 100 greatest places along with Mumbai’s Soho House.

The Statue of Unity was built at an estimated cost of Rs. 2,989 crore.

The statue has been designed by Padma Bhushan-winning sculptor Ram V Sutar and has been built by Larsen and Toubro and the state-run Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd. It took about 250 engineers and 3,400 labourers to construct the statue in 33 months.