Delhi airport roof collapse: ₹20 lakh compensation for deceased, minister to probe incident
The civil aviation ministry said that heavy overnight rainfall has resulted in the collapse of the canopy of Delhi airport T1.
Civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu on Friday visited the Terminal-1 of New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) and inspected the area, where a portion of the roof collapsed in the early hours of Friday, resulting in the death of at least one person and leaving six others injured.
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The union minister inspected the incident site and said that the structure at the Delhi airport and other airports with such structures across the country will be thoroughly inspected. The technical reasons and other aspects of the incident will be known after the investigation, he told the reporters.
Naidu further announced that a compensation of ₹20 lakh will be given to the family of the deceased and ₹3 lakh to those injured in the tragic incident.
“I have also met the injured who are admitted at AIIMS. It is the commitment of the Government that whenever such a crisis has occurred, we have worked hard diligently and restored normalcy...What happened in T1 is unfortunate but this will be investigated,” the minister said.
According to Naidu, the structure that collapsed was opened in 2009 and airport operator Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) has been ordered to inspect the structure. "DGCA will supervise the inspection and they will give a report".
Further, he said a thorough checking of all similar structures at airports across the country will be carried out.
Regarding the operations, the minister said that the T1 has been evacuated. It is closed until a thorough inspection is done. The flight operations are being carried out from T2 and T3 for the time being.
"T1 has been completely evacuated, operations that were scheduled to take place from there are being continued from T2 and T3. The building will remain closed until the experts approve it. Flights at T1 have been cancelled till 2 pm," he said.
Immediately after learning about the incident, Naidu said the emergency response and fire safety teams were sent. Among others, CISF and NDRF personnel were also at the site.
"We immediately sent the emergency response team, the fire safety team and also the CISF, and NDRF teams. Everyone was available at the site and they did a thorough inspection so that no other casualties were there. So right now the situation is under control. The rest of the terminal building has been closed and everything is being thoroughly inspected so that there is no further untoward incident here," he said.
On the opposition's allegation of "Corruption" and "criminal negligence" responsible for the roof collapse incident, where the Congress claimed that the portion that collapsed was inaugurated by the PM on 10 March, Naidu clarified that the building, which was inaugurated by PM Modi was on the other side of the terminal and the building that collapsed was an old building which was opened to the public in the year 2009.
“It is being falsely said. The 3-month-old building being talked about is a different building. It is still safe. This particular building was not inaugurated by the PM. That was a different building...The building where the roof collapsed is from 2009. We have given orders for the probe,” he added.
Delhi Airport roof collapse: 1 killed, 6 injured; flight operations at Terminal-1 severely hit
Terminal 1 has only domestic flight operations by IndiGo and SpiceJet. The airport -- which has three terminals T1, T2 and T3 -- handles around 1,400 flight movements daily.
DIAL, a consortium led by GMR Group, is the operator of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in the national capital.
"We sincerely regret this disruption and apologise for any inconvenience caused." the spokesperson said.
(With inputs from agencies)