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Friday, November 12, 2021

Air fares to the US spiral after travel curbs eased

Air fares to the US spiral after travel curbs eased

Petlee.Peter@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:12.11.2021

Air fares from Bengaluru to various destinations in the United States have skyrocketed after the US opened its borders for fully vaccinated travellers across nations on Monday. The US had closed its borders as a measure to contain the pandemic.

Now, a one-way ticket from Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport to JFK Airport, New York, starts at Rs 91,000, up from Rs 35,000-50,000 earlier, leaving several people who had intended to travel in a quandary.

Elderly Bengaluru couple Ajith and Shanta, who were eager to meet their first grandchild, were thrilled when travel curbs were eased. Their grandchild was born in the US in mid-2020. “We were all set to fly to New York after the ban was lifted, but ticket prices have more than doubled. The best return fare we can get is Rs 1.6 lakh per passenger,” said Shanta.

Return air fares to New York would usually cost Rs 70,000 to Rs 1 lakh but now, while Rs 1.6 lakh is the cheapest, the cost of a ticket goes all the way up to Rs 2.5 lakh. Passengers are unable to find cheaper tickets and indications are that fares will only rise.

Puja, a communications executive from Hyderabad, said her sister had planned to fly from San Francisco to Bengaluru to visit her family in Hyderabad. She hadn’t seen them in two years. “We checked for tickets in December and were stunned to see return fares cost $3,400 which is over Rs 2.5 lakh on conversion,” Puja said. “The holiday season will only see airfares going up.”

Indiver Rastogi, president of Global Business Travel, Thomas Cook, India and SOTC said airfares have seen a surge of between 30% and 100% when compared to pre-pandemic levels. “This is because of significant pent-up demand across leisure, visiting friends and relatives (VFR) and business segments in the face of limited capacity.”

He said a San Francisco-Bengaluru pre-pandemic return fare of Rs 90,000 has seen a 100% jump to Rs 1,80,000 and for New York-Bengaluru the fare increase is approximately 67%. “However, resumption of commercial flights will ease capacity constraints and pricing will fall,” he said.

Prahlad Krishnamurthi, chief business officer, Cleartrip, said demand for the US is improving for travel dates around mid-December and January and bookings have shown an uptick in the recent past.

BMTC to issue student passes from Nov 14

BMTC to issue student passes from Nov 14

Bengaluru:12.11.2021

BMTC has decided to issue smart cardbased student passes from November 14 at Bangalore-One centres.

“Online applications for student pass issuance for 2021-22 are available on Seva Sindhu portal (sevasindhu.karnataka.gov.in) and BMTC portal (mybmtc.karnataka.gov.in),” said a press release. “Passes will be issued at 95 Bangalore-One centres from 8am to 6:30pm on all days,” it added. TNN

13 flights diverted to Bengaluru from Chennai due to bad weather

13 flights diverted to Bengaluru from Chennai due to bad weather

12.11.2021

Bengaluru:

Thirteen flights scheduled to land at Chennai airport were diverted to Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) on Thursday following heavy rain and windy conditions in Tamil Nadu resulting in suspension of flight landing till evening.

Two flights from Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, were also diverted to Bengaluru due to bad weather.

Chennai and its suburbs have been battered by nonstop downpour since Wednesday evening, resulting in flooding in the most parts of the city. As the Tamil Nadu capital also experienced strong wind, Chennai airport authorities decided to suspend landing of flights there from Thursday afternoon till evening.

In an official statement, the authorities said that due to severe rain and heavy cross wind, arrivals would remain suspended from 1.15pm to 6pm. Departures would continue. The decision was taken considering the safety of passengers.

Accordingly, 10 flights scheduled to land in Chennai after taking off from different domestic destinations were diverted to Bengaluru after Thursday noon and three more diverted flights touched down at KIA by evening. Flight operations at Chennai airport resumed after 6pm. TNN

Ahmedabad-Delhi train travel to be much quicker

Ahmedabad-Delhi train travel to be much quicker

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

12.11.2021

With the railways intent on completing double tracks between Mehsana and Palanpur, come 2022, the Ahmedabad-Delhi rail route may get shorter and less time consuming.

Work on the Ahmedabad-Udaipur gauge conversion is also being run on war footing and expected to be complete soon. This will open up a new rail route to Delhi from Ahmedabad.

Railway officials said that with some parts of the route to Delhi converted to double track the travel time by Ashram Express from Ahmedabad to Delhi has already been cut down by 2 hours and 10 minutes, from earlier 17 hours 30 minutes to the current 15 hours and 20 minutes. With the rest of the ongoing work completed, this time would drop to 14 hours and 30 minutes said a railways official. Currently, the Rajdhani takes 13 hours 35 minutes to reach Delhi from Ahmedabad. That time too will be shortened.

Completion of electrification work will reduce the travel time further, said railway officials.

“The track is likely to undergo inspection by March next year after which it will be commissioned for passenger traffic,” said a senior railways officer. He said the electrification being tested in Ajmer division will also be commissioned by the middle of next year.

About the Ahmedabad-Udaipur-Delhi route, he said that travelling time to Udaipur, which is about 220-odd km will come down to four hours and then another 13 hours to go from Udaipur to Delhi via that route.

For instance, the travel time by Ashram Express will be cut by 3 hours

As water enters wards, hosps rush to shift patients

As water enters wards, hosps rush to shift patients

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

12.11.2021

More than 100 patients from Chromepet Government Hospital were moved to Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital and Government Kasturba Gandhi Hospital on Thursday after water gushed into wards on the ground floor.

Director medical services Dr S Gurunathan said all patients were stable but they had to wade through kneedeep water to board ambulances and jeeps. Power supply was suspended for safety reasons.

The flooded wards brought back memories of 2015 floods and residents revived their demand for the hospital’s demolition. “The hospital is in a low lying area and there is no path for water to flow out. State should bring down the hospital and build a enew facility,” said social activist V Santhanam.

Attendants were annoyed that patients were shifted only after the hospital was flooded. “With the slightest of rain the hospital gets flooded,” said Palanivel S, whose niece delivered at the hospital. “The mother had to wade through contaminated water with the child.”

Doctors at the flooded peripheral hospital in K K Nagar moved two patients to Royapettah GH. “In most hospitals, we have placed high power motors to pump out water,” said director of medical education Dr R Narayanababu.

LATE MOVE: Patients were shifted from flooded hosps and pumps were used to clear the water

Wet spell set to subside from today

Wet spell set to subside from today

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

12.11.2021

There could finally be some respite from the downpour as the IMD has said the wet spell will subside from Friday.

IMD has forecast light to moderate rain for the next two days over the city. But the break may not be for too long, as a fresh low pressure area is likely to form over south Andaman sea around November 13. On Thursday, the depression over the Bay crossed near Chennai coast between 5.30pm and 6.30pm.

“From Friday onwards, there are chances of reduction in rainfall,” said S Balachandran, deputy director general, IMD.

For the next 48 hours, IMD has forecast light to moderate rainfall with cloudy skies in the city and suburbs. Isolated places over Nilgiris, Coimbatore and Kanyakumari districts may receive thunderstorms with heavy rain on Friday.

Balachandran said Tamil Nadu recorded 40cm rainfall this northeast monsoon season beginning October 1 against a normal of 26cm. Chennai registered 74cm against a normal of 42cm, recording a 77% surplus rain.

IMD later tweeted, “A fresh low pressure area is likely to form over south Andaman sea and neighbourhood around November 13. It is likely to move westnorthwestwards and become more marked during the subsequent 48 hours.” But weather enthusiasts said there are chances for the system to skip Chennai and move up in latitude towards Andhra Pradesh.

CHENNAI SHOWS HOW NOT TO MANAGE MONSOON

CHENNAI SHOWS HOW NOT TO MANAGE MONSOON

Corparation Handled Rain Damage Better This Time, Say Experts; Residents Say No

Komal.Gautham@timesgroup.com

12.11.2021

Soon after the December 2015 floods, the blame for the devastation caused was placed on encroachments in water bodies, blocks in major canals, lack of storm water drains in many places and the absence of data on critical areas.

Nearly six years later, after heavy rain has caused almost similar destruction, the question is whether Greater Chennai Corporation was better prepared to deal with the crisis. Experts say the city administration did better, but residents, who had to bear the brunt of nature’s fury, feel otherwise.

They say the corporation built drains over 900km since 2018, but when it mattered, some were blocked and some connected to those on elevated roads such as near Inner Ring Road in North Chennai didn’t work. In the central region, the dumping of debris for the Mambalam canal improvement work just ahead of the monsoon led to a disaster, while in the south lakes filled during the southwest monsoon overflowed, flooding homes and entire localities.

Since May, a senior corporation official told TOI, a lot of garbage and debris was removed from road sides and slum. The civic body de-silted 900km of the 2,500km of drains, de-silted 30,000 catchpits. New drains were constructed in Velachery, Nandanam and other areas and a response system was also put in place. This, he claimed, helped keep water away from major most bus route roads.

But, residents say, several localities came under 3-5 feet of water.

KK Nagar, pockets of Alwarpet, Velachery, Ashok Nagar, Kilpauk, Subramania Puram and Aziz Nagar in Kodambakkam, Pulianthope, Broadway, Choolai and Madipakkam were all declared high risk in 2019 and details of how the drains didn’t have enough carrying capacity was submitted to the civic body by experts. Yet, it was in these areas that drain work didn’t take place in the last five years. “We had submitted the proposals. It will be completed in a year,” said an official.

Another reason for the flooding, officials said, was that the November 7 rain had already inundated major areas. This week’s rain only caused more havoc.

M V Ramanamoorthy, director of National Centre for Coastal Research, said there was a lot of improvement in the system. “In 2015, we were not prepared for heavy rain. Earlier, we used to have distributed rainfall over two months. Now, the entire rainfall is received within a few days. It is difficult for any city to accommodate this much water. The administration has done a lot by clearing many bottlenecks. However, a comprehensive plan for the entire city is needed as in the future more such events are likely to take place often,” he said.