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Need urgent Help. My mother is not well in Chennai.

I need to travel from Bangalore to Chennai mostly tomorrow (Friday 7/10 or Saturday 7/11) and will be using my car Ritz (KA registration)

I am applying TN Epass now under medical emergency with a certificate from Mom's doctor as reason for travel.

1. Is this sufficient proof for travel ?
2. Is there any medical certificate needed from my end that I am not symptomatic ?
3. Will there be institutional quarantine once I enter TN/Chennai ?
4. Will there be any COVID Test that needs to be done when I enter TN/Chennai ?

Not able to search much due to the situation. Appreciate the help.

Hope all is well. Don't worry.

To answer your questions:
1) Yes, it should be sufficient.
2) Not required.
3) There is no institutional quarantine in TN for those who entering TN/Chennai, but you have to undergo 14 days Home Quarantine.
4) No. They will do temperature checks is what i heard.

-Ravi

Hope all is well.

1. A medical prescription with proper prescription or details are considered valid.
2. Not needed
3. Home quarantine is the current SOP.
4. Not sure. When I did a trip last month to Coimbatore from Hosur due to medical emergency, a COVID test was conducted for all my car passengers at the border of CBE. So far I didnt get any call from the authorities, which means we tested negative.

P.S - For travel within Tamilnadu, the epass is not getting approved automatically for most of the cases. For another instance of travel, I had to call up Krishnagiri Collectorate control room to explain the situation and get it approved.

Amazing level of detail. I don't know when we will ever reach a stage, when we can travel / drive without the fear of this stupid virus, check into a hotel / resort and dive into the bed without any fear.

It is 8 months since I did any long distance driving and I am longing for it.

Regards,
Narayan

Was planning on going to Chennai to pickup mother in law and return on same day.

From those who have traveled recently.
- How easy is it to get TN pass
- Any checking enroute to Chennai apart from the border check ?
- KA entry - Apart from seva sindu acknowledgement, any other requirement?

Two new categories for TN e-pass -

https://www.thenewsminute.com/articl...ls-here-130361

1. Job interviews
2. Office work / meetings

Hey Suhas,
To answer your questions:

1) Nowadays it has become very difficult to get TN ePass. Majority of ePass applications are rejected. My neighbout had applied 7 times and all 7 times it was rejected and finally they got it approved using known person in Collector office. :Frustrati. However, there is no direct category for same day return. So possibilities are there they may stamp in your hand and ask you for 14 day quarantine in TN, although it is difficult to explain to people.
2) AFAIK, after the border checks there are no other major checks. Don't plan for Sunday/curfew days.
3) For KA entry, just an acknowledgement in Seva sindhu portal is sufficient and is a very simple process.

-Ravi

I need to drive to Chennai to drop my in-laws. The preferred plan is to drive to Chennai, drop them, and return to Bangalore the next day. I've been waiting for a couple of months hoping for rules to ease with no luck so far. I am planning to wait until Sep first week but not very hopeful of any helpful changes in travel and quarantine restrictions.

• Will we be forced to home quarantine in Chennai for 14 days?
• Do they hand stamp home quarantine at the border or at any other check point en route?
• What is the home quarantine process in Chennai? Is it like Kerala where there is strict daily monitoring or is it like Bangalore where there is no daily monitoring (at least not that we experienced nor heard from others).
• Do they allow delivery of essentials or is it arranged through the authorities?
• Do they allow the entire family to be quarantined together at home irrespective of home size?

I am planning to apply for a TN exit pass for the next day of travel and see if I can explain the situation to the authorities. If that doesn't work, then we'll go through the quarantine in Chennai and then return. Of course that would imply quarantine in Bangalore too.

It would be best if we can manage to return the next day since that will help avoid quarantine in Bangalore too (4 day business travel exception).

Its not like in Kerala. You may get one or two calls from the health department after few days but in some cases people never received any calls. So, I think next day return shouldn't be an issue.

We travelled to Chennai on 26th Aug (Yesterday) and returned to Bangalore today (Aug 27th) after dropping my in-laws. My updates below.

Before travel

• I applied for TN entry pass (for 4 of us) for the 26th. It got approved in 5 minutes
• I applied for TN exit pass (for 2 of us) for the 27th. This too got approved in 5 minutes
• I applied for KA entry pass, one each for the 2 of us. I chose the returning business traveller option which only allows 1 person per pass. So applied for a separate pass for my wife. However, a few days after I got the KA pass, KA gov. eased travel restrictions further and revoked the epass requirement.

Travel

• We left home at 5 AM. I had pasted the TN entry pass on the windshield. Entry into TN was smooth. No checking was done though traffic was controlled through barricades. The police on duty may have seen the pass and waved us on or maybe he was in no mood to check. There were not many vehicles ahead of me so I couldn't figure out any pattern.
• There was no further checking anywhere till we reached home in Chennai.
• I've not been able to find official quarantine rules in Chennai but I got feedback through someone who travelled before that TN waives home quarantine requirement if you leave within 48 hours.
• No hand stamping was done for any of us. They were doing so at airports and I had suspected this at the border but they don't seem to be doing it now.
• Apparently, volunteers assigned by Chennai Corporation do visit houses regularly (they do so in my in-laws' neighbourhood) and check. What they base it on, I couldn't figure, but our neighbour warned my in-laws to expect a visit soon! Maybe he reported and was providing a facade :)
• On return, we left Chennai at 5 AM. The exit pass was stuck on the windshield.
• At some point after Arcot, at a check point I was asked about my destination.
• Somewhere around Vellore, there was another check point where the duty police looked at details on the pass.
• We didn't have to get down and fill details at any check point.
• KA has closed down border control at Hosur. So entry into KA was like pre-Covid times.
• Chennai bound side at Hosur border had a long queue. Could't figure out much details about the action.
• Restaurants were open and spotted a few cars too.

Traffic was heavy both ways and I couldn't help wonder if we somehow missed the memo on pandemic easing off. Walajapet to Poonamalee and onward toward Koyambedu remains a patchy drive but couldn't spot any major potholes. Rest of the route is smooth as usual.

Hi Mnjdnght,

Can you please let me know where can I apply the TN exit pass? I am unable to find any other link. And there is no option for TN exit pass in the TN epass portal.

Just apply for a pass to go from chennai to bangalore.

Well, as @hserus has responded, it is the same link as for entry but provide details for travel from Chennai to Bangalore.

I have to travel to Chennai from Kerala by road ( own car ) and return after 4 days. I applied and got epass instantly.

But TN epass says 14 days home quarantine at Chennai. Is this true ?

I'm not sure how this is implemented/enforced, but within a few hours of reaching Chennai my friend was contacted by the municipal corporation folks. He was there for half a day for a funeral and returned later that night though and had a tough time convincing Karnataka cops on the way back at Attibele. This was in June, don't know how it is now.