By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI: The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) is coordinating with state Governments for supply of medical equipment and related essential items needed for protection against and testing of COVID-19.
Based on requirements received from various states on urgent basis, the senior officials of the Ministry coordinate with supply agencies for providing required material which can be further transported to the desired destinations. Air India and Alliance Air flights are being operated to carry out the necessary supply operations across the country.Agencies authorised by MoCA to carry shipment on these flights contact the concerned officials of their region and coordinate for timely delivery/ receipt of shipments.
In order to cater to eastern and north eastern parts of the country, an Alliance Air flight from Delhi to Kolkata carried shipments for Kolkata, Guwahati, Dibrugarh and Agartala on 29th March 2020.In northern region, IAF flight from Delhi to Chandigarh to Leh carried ICMR VTM kits and other essential cargo.
Alliance Air transferred Pune shipment to Mumbai on Air India flight. (Mumbai -Delhi-Hyderabad-Chennai-Mumbai and Hyderabad – Coimbatore)- Flights on this route carried and transported ICMR kits of Shimla, Rishikesh, Lucknow and Imphal from Pune to Delhi. ICMR kits were carried to Chennai. A consignment of Hyderabad was delivered. Consignments of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry were also delivered. A consignment of Ministry of Textiles was moved to Coimbatore.
The information sharing, answering of queries and the work at ground is going on round the clock for delivering the supplies to the destinations in a timely manner so the the efforts to fight the COVID-19 are multiplied and supplemented.
