Kolkata, July 4: The Civil Aviation Ministry on Friday cancelled all flights to Kolkata from six Metropolitan cities from July 6 amid rising coronavirus cases. The cities from where flights are cancelled, include - Delhi, Mumbai,  Pune, Nagpur, Chennai and Ahmedabad. The flights from these cities will remain suspended till July 19. The decision was taken after the West Bengal government asked the Centre to not schedule any flight to the state from six COVID-19 hotspot states for two weeks. West Bengal Urges Centre Not to Schedule Flights from 8 Cities with High COVID-19 Cases.

Kolkata Airport in a Tweet said, “It is informed that no flights shall operate to Kolkata from Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Chennai & Ahmedabad from 6th to 19th July 2020 or till further order whichever is earlier. Inconvenience caused is regretted.@AAI_Official @MoCA_GoI @ushapadhee1996 @HardeepSPuri @arvsingh01.” West Bengal Govt Announces Relaxations in Night Curfew.

Tweet by Kolkata Airport:

On Tuesday, West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiv Sinha also wrote a letter to cancel flights from hotspot cities. In the letter to the Ministry of Central Aviation, Sinha said, “Kindly not to schedule any flight to West Bengal from Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Chennai, Indore, Ahmedabad, Surat for two weeks starting July 6, 2020.” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on Monday said that her government would urge the Centre to limit domestic flights to the state to just one day a week, as the number of infections went up once people from outside started returning to West Bengal.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 04, 2020 04:18 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).