Passengers who are arriving at the Chennai airport can get e-passes from the counters opened in the arrival hall of the domestic terminal, if they fail to get it online.
A few days ago, the Tamil Nadu government introduced restrictions because of the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases and said e-registration was mandatory for international and domestic passengers, except those arriving from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry.
Every day, thousands of e-passes have been issued at the counters at the Chennai airport.
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Discontinued briefly
Officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) say these counters were opened last year for passengers arriving without e-passes, and they continued operating for many months.
“Their operation was discontinued very briefly, and then resumed. The passengers can either apply online through the Tamil Nadu government portal for e-registration or get the e-passes from these counters on arrival,” according to an official.
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On an average, the airport handles about 20,000 domestic passengers.
Among them are 8,000-9,000 arrival passengers who will need e-pass or e-registration, officials say. There are some passengers who are still wondering whether they needed e-passes, and they often raise this question on Twitter for AAI.
Some say that though they got e-passes, no one checked them out.