NEW DELHI: Ahead of the launch of a nationwide vaccination drive against the coronavirus on January 16, airlines operated by Air India, Spicejet, Indigo and Goair have started ferrying vaccines from Pune to other cities.
Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said four airlines will operate nine flights to transport 56.5 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Pune to 13 cities across the country on Tuesday.
"Vaccine movement has started", he said on Twitter, adding that first two flights operated by "SpiceJet and GoAir from Pune to Delhi and Chennai have taken off".
The first consignment of Covishield consisting of 34 boxes and weighing 1088 kg was carried from Pune to Delhi on SpiceJet flight 8937.
“We will be carrying multiple vaccine consignments to different Indian cities including Guwahati, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Bengaluru, Patna and Vijayawada through the day today. SpiceJet is fully committed and prepared to transport the Covid vaccine both within and outside India. Today marks the beginning of a long and decisive phase in India’s fight against the pandemic and SpiceJet is proud to assist in the biggest vaccination drive in the history of mankind,” said Chairman and Managing Director of SpiceJet Ajay Singh.
Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) said that the airport has been relentlessly working for timely and smooth supply of medical equipment and other relief material in and out of Delhi to various destinations in India in this COVID times.
“Today, we have received the first batch of COVID-19 vaccine at our airport. Temperature-controlled facility, ranging from -20 Deg C to +25 Deg C, at our two Cargo terminals can efficiently and safely handle these temperature sensitive vaccines. We have Cool Chambers and Cool Dollies to maintain temperature required for these vaccines at the cargo terminal and during transit between aircraft and terminal or vice versa. Our both terminals can handle around 5.7 million vials in a day,” it said.
“We have synergized and collaborated with all the stakeholders including exporters, importers, logistics companies, freight forwarders/agents, government, airlines, cargo terminal operators, to ensure faster turnaround of the vaccines.” CEO-DIAL Videh Kumar Jaipuriar said.
The government on Monday placed firm orders in advanced commitments for over 6 crore doses of COVID vaccine from SII and Bharat Biotech for inoculating three crore healthcare and frontline workers in the first phase of the vaccination drive scheduled to start from January 16, together which will cost Rs 1,300 crore.
The Pune airport tweeted on Monday morning that the "vaccine to kill the disease is being loaded onto the aircrafts for distribution all over the country now".
Interacting with chief ministers on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi underscored the enormity of what he called as the world's biggest vaccination exercise, saying over 30 crore citizens will get the jabs in the next few months in India against only 2.5 crore people vaccinated so far in over 50 countries in around a month.
(Inputs from PTI)
ALSO WATCH: