VIJAYAWADA: E-passes will now be generated automatically for people entering Andhra Pradesh by flight. So far, this facility was only available for people entering the state by road.
“Since the Central government said special permission for inter-state travel is not needed in the third phase of ‘Unlock’, we felt e-passes for air travel were not necessary. But Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney insisted on maintaining a record of people entering the state, so we continued with the process. However, from now, e-passes for people travelling by air will be generated automatically,” special task force officer MT Krishna Babu said.
The only need to register for e-passes now is so the government can maintain a database, which will help ground-level staff, such as ANMs, Asha workers and ward secretaries, monitor people who enter the State, he added.
“After the CS asked us to continue issuing e-passes, we discussed it with the airlines functioning in Andhra Pradesh. A few wished to retain the old system of issuing tickets only after people submit an e-pass acknowledgement number, but the others were ready to issue tickets without an acknowledgement number. We needed time to make the technical changes for auto-generation of e-passes,” the official explained.
On Spandana (spandana.ap.go.in), the state government’s online services portal, travellers can mention the mode of transport and purpose of visit under the ‘Covid-19 Movement of People’ section.
As on Thursday, auto-generation of e-passes was possible under the ‘domestic passenger enrolment’ section. The facility will be available for other sections — ‘online registration of pass’, ‘employee registration for pass’, and ‘emergency (health) pass — from Friday.