To increase economic activities and employment opportunities, the Government of India is considering to give a breather to various sectors in Unlock 4 which will begin from September 1.
According to the sources, the government may give some more relaxations but its implementation in states or union territories (UT) will be done on the basis of assessment conducted by state governments.
Unlock 4 will come at a time when India’s Covid tally stands at more than 3 million and over 58,000 people have died due to the disease.
The government is considering opening local rail transportation from the first week of September. The Unlock 4 guidelines for resuming Metro service will be issued later this week. Passengers travelling in metros may not be allowed to use tokens anymore as the Centre plans to implement a contactless ticketing system using only cards.
Also, single-screen cinema halls are likely to be allowed with strict social distancing norms.
Similarly, the government is also considering giving relaxations to auditoriums, halls but they will have to adopt social distancing norms like thermal screening and temperature check with less number of gatherings than the halls’ capacity.
“So far, the Government of India, the Home Ministry’s SOP (standard operating procedure), has a fixed number of 50 people. We have written a letter to the Home Minister to ask for permission for banquet halls to open with 50% of their capacity. The hotel owners also want to move forward with this situation towards their revival. I think the government is taking decisions very quickly, this industry also believes. I think this decision will also be taken soon,” said tourism minister Prahlad Patel.
According to the sources, nothing has been finalised yet and it is expected to get finalised soon as a meeting regarding the same is pending.
The government is not keen to open schools and colleges but is considering reopening institutes like IITs and IIMs. It is expected that there would be hardly any change in international air travel norms as air travel of passengers has been permitted in a limited manner under the Vande Bharat Mission.
