Good news for Globe Aware volunteers planning a volunteer vacation to India. The ministry of Civil Aviation of the Indian Government has lifted the mandate to fill up the Air Suvidha form for all international passengers. The decision was declared on Monday, 21 November.
India discontinues Air Suvidha for all international passengers
23 Nov 2022
by Anithya Balachandran
India travel
The ministry of Civil Aviation of the Indian Government has decided to lift off the mandate to fill up Air Suvidha form for all international passengers. The decision was made and declared on Monday, 21 November.
Air Suvidha is an online system for International passengers to submit a mandatory self declaration form to declare their current health status. This form had been made mandatory and all international pasengers entering the country via flights had to fill it before boarding. Last year, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare had mandated contactless self-declaration at Air Suvidha Portal to ensure the smooth passage of international travellers arriving in India.
" AirSuvidha was introduced when Covid was at its peak, aiming to track people landing in Indian airports. With normal life back, why is it still mandatory for flyers to India to submit #AirSuvidha? Urge @JM_Scindia to review this requirement & lift the dead hand of bureaucracy" tweeted Congress leader Shashi Tharoor recently.
The revised guidelines for international arrivals state, " Planning for Travel: All travellers should preferably be fully vaccinated as per approved primary schedule against Covid-19 in their country."
During air travel, the ministry said that in-flight announcement about the ongoing pandemic, including precautionary measures to be followed such as preferable use of masks and following physical distances, should be made in flights/travel at all points of entry. In the wake of the pandemic, scheduled domestic flight services were suspended for two months starting from March 25, 2020. Scheduled international flight services, which was also suspended from the same day, was restored only from March 27 this year.
