Union civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, while assuring proactive measures in the wake of the roof collapse incident at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport Terminal-1, has said that a structural preliminary inspection would be done at all the airports across the country.
Naidu said that the ministry sought a report from all the airports within 2-5 days, upon which required necessary measures would to be taken to prevent such collapse incidents in the future.
“Since we don’t want such incidents to be repeated, we will ensure getting a structural preliminary inspection done at all airports. We have sought a report from all the airports across the country within 2-5 days, upon which we will see what necessary measures are needed to be taken to prevent such incidents in the future,” news agency ANI quoted Naidu as saying.
His remarks came in the wake of the Delhi Airport canopy collapse incident, which claimed the life of a 45-year-old cab driver and left eight others injured.
The minister also expressed his condolence for the departed soul and said, “The incident that happened at the Delhi airport is very tragic and I offer my condolences to the one individual who lost his life. Some people were injured also in the incident, they have been taken to the hospital and their treatment is underway.”
While speaking on the proactive measures, the aviation minister said that a war room has been constituted to ensure refunds or alternate flights for affected passengers in the incident. He also guaranteed a refund within seven days or alternate flights for those whose flights were canceled.
“For now, Terminal-1 is completely closed and evacuated. All the flight movements have been shifted to Terminal 2 and Terminal 3. For those people whose flights have been canceled, they are being given either a refund or an alternate flight. The Civil Aviation Ministry has decided to pass a circular to provide refunds to the people within seven days.”
“To ensure this happens, we have set up war rooms at Terminal 2 and Terminal 3. The Ministry has released a statement regarding this which has all the numbers. We are taking care of it and have placed one of the officers in the war rooms,” he added.
The ministry has also issued a circular to airlines, citing not to increase the fares.
“When such incidents occur, there is an increase in air fares, so we have issued another circular to airlines on not increasing the fare of the tickets and maintaining the prices,” Naidu said.
He also slammed the opposition Congress for doing petty politics and spreading fake news over the tragic incident.
“I am a little surprised that the opposition wants to do politics on this kind of issue by saying this is a terminal inaugurated by PM Modi but it is fake news they are spreading. PM Modi inaugurated a building in another terminal and it is intact. The roof of the building that collapsed is an old building inaugurated in 2009. It is a 15-year-old building…using this situation to take a dig at the govt is not a good precedent,” he said.
The canopy collapse has resulted in the suspension of operations from the Terminal 1, which handles around 200 flights a day, indefinitely. The police have registered a case on charges of causing death by negligence.
Delhi Airport, operated by Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) said that a roof at the old departure forecourt of Terminal 1 partially collapsed around 5am on Friday. While the cause for the collapse is yet to be ascertained, it is suspected to be due to heavy rainfall and winds.
The DIAL has further constituted a technical committee to investigate the cause of the incident. The ministry has also announced a compensation of ₹20 lakh to the family of the deceased, and ₹3 lakh each to those who received minor injuries.
(With inputs from agencies)
