New Delhi: The Indian government is actively considering doing away with a provision which requires international passengers to upload their Covid-19 vaccine certificate or RT-PCR negative report on the ‘Air Suvidha’ portal before flying to India. However, the existing mandate of filling up a self-declaration form online on the portal will continue, official sources informed Tuesday.
Passengers have been complaining about the ‘Air Suvidha’ portal being periodically down, difficulty in accessing forms and uploading of certificates, the sources said. They added that the removal of the provision may come as a relief for global passengers.
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“The Civil Aviation Ministry recently sought inputs from the Union Health Ministry for removing the provision which requires international passengers to upload the Covid-19 vaccine certificate or the RT-PCR negative report on the ‘Air Suvidha’ portal citing inconvenience faced by travellers,” a source said. “The Health Ministry has given its go ahead,” the source added.
The Aviation Ministry has been receiving feedback from travellers about the hassles they face while uploading the certificates prior to their travel. With international travel getting back to the pre-pandemic level, several countries have taken steps to relax requirements and restrictions for ease of travel, the sources informed.
India logged 12,751 new coronavirus infections taking the country’s total tally of Covid-19 cases to 4,41,74,650, while the active cases have declined to 1,31,807, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated Tuesday.