Roof collapses at Delhi airport after heavy rain; 1 dead, 6 hurt

Shubhadeep Choudhury

New Delhi, June 28

A day after a portion of the new terminal building of Jabalpur airport in Madhya Pradesh caved in, a cab driver died and six persons were injured after a portion of a canopy at Indira Gandhi International Airport’s Terminal-1 collapsed on Friday as Delhi witnessed a heavy spell of rain, the highest in a single day of June in 88 years.

Operations were suspended at the Terminal-1, which has only domestic flights by IndiGo and SpiceJet. More than 100 flights that were to be operated from T1 were cancelled by both these carriers. Further, all SpiceJet operations at T1 were shifted to T3, while IndiGo’s services were distributed amongst T2 and T3.

Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu, who visited the airport, said the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had been asked to carry out a high-level probe into the incident. The Ministry of Civil Aviation issued an advisory to all airlines, urging them to monitor any abnormal surge in airfares due to the incident. Flight cancellations and rescheduling should be done without penal charges, it said. The ministry also ordered an inspection of the structural strength of all airports in the country.

Atul Garg, Director, Delhi Fire Services, said they received information about the incident at 5.30 am following which four fire tenders were rushed to the spot. “We took seven persons in injured condition from the airport to Medanta Hospital. One of them was already dead,” Garg said. The deceased was identified as Ramesh Kumar (45). He was sitting in his parked car upon which an iron beam fell. Besides the roof sheet, the support beams collapsed, damaging the cars parked in the pick-up and drop area of the terminal.

GMR Group-owned Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), which operates the airport, has announced a compensation of Rs 20 lakh for the next of the kin of the deceased and Rs 3 lakh each for those injured.

DIAL has also set up a technical committee to investigate the cause of the incident. The committee has been asked to submit its report at the earliest.

The incident triggered a political slugfest with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge taking a swipe at the Centre, alleging that the affected portion of the airport was inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi and TMC MP Saket Gokhale also slammed the Modi government. The Civil Aviation Minister, on the other hand, said the building inaugurated by the PM was not the one involved in the roof collapse incident. Sources said the roof in question was constructed during 2008-09. The work was allocated by GMR to private contractors, they said.