Roof collapse at Delhi airport kills one, as heavy rain disrupts Indian capital

[June 28, 2024]  By Aftab Ahmed and Aditi Shah

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Heavy rainfall and winds brought down a roof at the main airport in New Delhi on Friday, killing one person and disrupting flights from a domestic terminal, while flooded streets and traffic snarls threw daily life out of gear in India's capital.

The airport area received about 148.5 millimeters of rain over three hours in the early morning, more than the average for all of June, according to India's weather office. Experts blame climate change for extreme heat followed by heavy rain.

The city of 20 million people, who faced searing heatwaves earlier this month, received 228.1 mm (9 inches) of rainfall at its main Safdarjung weather station in the 24 hours ending 8:30 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Friday, a 266% departure from normal.

A portion of the canopy and supporting beam at the departure area of Terminal 1 collapsed and flight operations were shut down until 2 p.m. (0830 GMT), India's aviation minister told reporters.

The entire terminal, one of three at the country's biggest and busiest airport, was evacuated and an inquiry ordered into the collapse, said the minister, Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu.

Rescue work had been completed and eight injured people were taken to hospital, Atul Garg, the director of Delhi Fire Service, said.

At least eight flights were cancelled and 47 were delayed while departures from Delhi airport were running late by an average of 40 minutes, according to data from flight tracking platform Flightradar24.

Arrivals and departures of flights scheduled from Terminal 1 after 2 p.m. were diverted through the other two terminals, Naidu said, adding that passengers would receive full refunds or have the option of booking on alternate flights and routes.

TAXI CRUSHED

Visuals from Indian TV channels showed a taxi crushed under a wrecked metal pillar at the entrance area of the terminal, which is mostly used by low-cost carriers IndiGo, operated by Interglobe Aviation, and SpiceJet for domestic flights.

Around 10-12 cars were damaged in the incident, said one of the workers at the airport.

"I first missed my flight in the morning due to floods. Then my 2:10 p.m. Indigo flight to Bangalore has been cancelled. I have to urgently reach Bangalore for an official meeting," said Asif Ali, a businessman standing outside Terminal 1.

GMR Airports Infrastructure, which operates Delhi International Airport, is also its top shareholder with a 64% stake. Its shares fell as much as 2.1% in early trade.

Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport, which owns a 10% stake in the airport, said it was in "close contact" with airport authorities.

Many other parts of Delhi were flooded as well, including a tunnel opposite the venue where India hosted its G20 summit in September, and cars trapped in thigh-deep water.

A wall in southwest Delhi collapsed amid the downpour with laborers feared trapped in the debris, said a fire service spokesperson.

A woman stands in front of the portion of a damaged canopy at terminal 1 following heavy rainfall at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India June 28, 2024. REUTERS/Priyanshu Singh

Metro services were affected and traffic snarls were reported from several parts of the city while several residents also complained of power cuts.

India's home ministry will review Delhi's preparedness for the monsoon with the local government, weather officials and other city authorities on Saturday, a federal government source said, with users taking to social media to criticize what they said was the capital's creaking infrastructure.

FAST-GROWING AVIATION MARKET

The roof and windows of a parked car were also damaged when part of a canopy of a new terminal building at Jabalpur airport in the central state of Madhya Pradesh caved in and fell following heavy rain.

India is among the fastest-growing major aviation markets in the world and domestic air travel reached a record 152 million passengers in 2023, according to government data. Domestic airlines carried 13.8 million passengers last month.

The country has built ports and expressways at the fastest pace ever over the past decade but the incidents at the airports in Delhi and Jabalpur re-ignited questions about shoddy work, loose regulation and a tearing hurry to complete projects, politicians and experts said.

Ahead of the April-May general election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated or laid the foundation stone of new terminal buildings at 15 airports at a cost of 98 billion rupees ($1.17 billion). Both Delhi's Terminal 1 and the terminal at Jabalpur were part of the projects.

Opposition parties criticized Modi's government, saying projects were inaugurated in a hurry before the election.

"Corruption and criminal negligence is responsible for the collapse of shoddy infrastructure falling like a deck of cards, in the past 10 years of Modi Govt," Mallikarjun Kharge, the president of the main opposition Congress party, said on X.

Aviation Minister Naidu defended the government, saying the roof collapse at Delhi's airport was part of an old building that was opened in 2009 and not the one Modi inaugurated in March.

($1 = 83.4450 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam, Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Sarita Chaganti Singh; additional reporting by Ainnie Arif, Jatindra Dash, Delhi and Bengaluru bureaux; writing by Sudipto Ganguly; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Raju Gopalakrishnan and Alex Richardson)

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