Nagaland bus
Representative photo. Image credit - https://goingsomewhere.blog

The Nagaland government has issued a new SOP for passenger vehicles in supersession of all the earlier orders, guidelines and advisories issued for vehicles. The new SOP will come into effect from August 9.

As per the new SOP, the maximum occupancy will be 50% in buses and light vehicles.

In case of taxis and auto-rickshaws, the maximum allowed passengers will be two without any passenger in the front seat.

If there is more than one row, then in each row not more than two passengers will be permitted.

The driver and attendants of every passenger vehicle, including taxis, auto-rickshaws and buses, plying within the district, should be asymptomatic and should have been fully vaccinated against Covid19 or should have taken the first dose and 15 days must have passed since taking the first dose.

If none of the two of these criteria regarding vaccination is fulfilled, then the driver/attendant should carry a Covid19 negative test report taken through either RT-PCR/TrueNat or CBNAAT with the swab taken for testing not earlier than 15 days.

In case of inter-district bus service/taxi service, in addition to the drivers/attendants fulfilling the conditions, the passengers should also fulfill the criteria.

The SOP said all the travelling passengers should be asymptomatic. All the passenger vehicles should mandatorily maintain a daily logbook of all travellers at the ticket/booking counter with name, age and sex, contact number, date of travel and destination.

In case of private passenger vehicles, there should not be more than two persons sitting on the middle and rear row seats. In both private and commercial passenger vehicles, everyone, including the drivers and attendants, should mandatorily wear masks at all times.

Pillion riding and two-wheeler taxi service will continue to remain suspended.

Carrying of passenger(s) in any transport vehicle carrying goods/commodities, including water carrier, dumper, etc. will not be permitted.

Inter-state travellers or those passenger(s) transiting through the State will continue to be guided by the revised SOP for returnees and inbound travellers issued on July 16.

Bhadra Gogoi is Northeast Now Correspondent in Nagaland. He can be reached at: [email protected]