Delhi Airport roof collapse: Negligence? | Faye D'Souza

A portion of the

roof

of Delhi Airport's Terminal 1

collapse

d today, killing one person and injuring eight others. The images are very distressing. It shows an individual, a taxi driver, still sitting in his car, when the giant pillar supporting part of that

roof

is actually there.

collapse

d on top of his car killing him, travel was suspended, terminal was evacuated, departures were temporarily suspended, the accident affected the travel plans of thousands of people because several of Delhi's local cost domestic planes take off from the terminal one, but the most shocking part of this has been what unfolded the day after the incident the ridiculous explanations that have been given to justify or blame what happened at this

airport

here are the five most ridiculous excuses that have been used For the roof collapse of Delhi Airport Terminal One, firstly blaming the rain, mainstream corporate media ran a headline in Cito saying that heavy rain causes roof collapse at Delhi Airport.

Another headline said that the Delhi

airport

collapsed early in the morning due to heavy rain. Could we really be suggesting that an airport collapsed due to heavy rain airports are designed to withstand bad weather they are designed to withstand earthquakes it is completely absurd to suggest that heavy rain caused the collapse and how heavy the rain was according to the Department Mechanic started raining around 3:00 a.m. and it lasted for 3 hours, we received 148.5 mm of rain, it is the beginning of monsoon and it is terrorizing the city of Delhi. The rain was not the only culprit.

The second excuse that quickly reached its users on Twitter or former journalists' users. who usually speaks on behalf of the government was this: He was saying that Delhi Airport Terminal 1 was built in 20089 during the UPA regime, the work was outsourced by gmr to private contractors. Government sources, so these are journalists actually speaking on behalf of the government and suggesting that the problem was that it was built by the previous regime, this is now a ridiculous suggestion because there are many pieces of infrastructure in our country that were built by previous governments, some dating back to the British.

There is infrastructure in our country that was built by Mugal even before the British. Now we are going to blame Shah Jahan if a part of the Red Fort collapses, isn't it the duty of those in charge today to maintain whatever piece of infrastructure the citizens are using? Secondly, the suggestion that the airport was privatized and that we have privatized it as Since then there are also many airports in the country, but the maintenance of security records and security audit is still the responsibility of the dgca, which is the director general of civil aviation, which on its own website says it is a regulatory body that deals primarily with safety issues, so dca's job is to ensure that any airport is safe regardless of who built it and who built it maintains, but let's take a look at who owns Delhi airport.

It is a public private consortium. Now gmr Airport Limited owns 64% of the airport authority in India and retains 26.% and that is the Government of India. Frankfurt airport services have 10% and that is the consortium that makes up this airport. Also remember that Delhi airport charges user development fee like all other airports in our country, Rs 200 per domestic passenger and Rs 1,300 for each international. Passenger, where does that money go because it is specifically intended to take care of the maintenance of the airport and the conservation of the airport? After this happened, several opposition leaders started blaming the Prime Minister for the incident saying that he had inaugurated an incomplete terminal in a hurry before the Lok saaba elections now as a fat check on March 10 this year just three months ago. the Prime Minister inaugurated or laid the foundation stone of 15 airport projects across the country worth over Rs 9,800 crore, including the expanded Delhi terminal, this particular airport, but it was the new expanded version of the same and the Jabalpur airport where the roof collapsed a day before this, union civil aviation minister Raman Naidu rushed to land today and clarify, and I am quoting here, he said that the building. inaugurated by the Prime Minister was on the other side the building that collapsed today is the old building that was inaugurated in 2009 the fourth most ridiculous thing about this is that the Minister of Aviation of the previous government who was in charge at that time was a certain Mr.

Praul Patel who is now part of the BJP NDA and a member of the rajas saaba of this government because he has changed sides so on one hand we have the government blaming the previous regime while the aviation minister of the previous regime is now in the Government now Praul Patel has spoken to the press today and criticized the opposition opp saying that they are playing politics with the dead bodies after protests arose over that incident now that the new Aviation Minister has promised a exhaustive review of all airports throughout the country. and an investigation into what happened at this airport, but the question that always has to be asked in these situations is who is carrying out that investigation.

Is there a file filed by the police because a person has died? We do not know so far who is carrying out the investigation. It is also very vague and convenient now this is what the minister said: Delhi International Airport will set up a committee to investigate the accident so that Delhi International Airport is effective, and that is that the consortium I spoke about is going to investigate its own blame and that doesn't sound. as a very thorough or very reliable investigation because on the one hand you have said that a private sector company is responsible but you are allowing that private sector company to set up a committee to investigate its own responsibility the aviation minister vaguely said that the government is open for an independent body to investigate, but there has been no clarity about who that independent body is.

As always, compensation of Rs 20 lakh has been announced for the family members of the deceased and Rs 3 lakh for the injured. Now the Telegraph is in Meanwhile, he cited sources within gmr and said that where the company said a part of the canopy that collapsed was part of a 15-year-old terminal that was scheduled to be closed within a month, now this it is also ridiculous because the structure if it was unsustainable should never have been used at all and if it is being used and is in use it is the responsibility of the gmr run

delhi

airport and the dgca to ensure that it is safe and fit and There's nothing wrong with basically saying it was a security breach because we're closing it next month, it's no excuse for this at all, it now leads us to ask a broader question that has been written about extensively in the run up to the elections.

India is among the fastest growing major aviation markets in the world. Air travel reached 152 million passengers in 2023, according to government data. The country has been building ports and highways at the fastest pace in the last decade, but now we have to ask ourselves questions about the timid ones. work relaxed regulations the gut-wrenching rush to complete projects now take a look at Delhi's only infrastructure problem Just 3 hours of rain and the country's capital is flooded cars are floating in water Metro services are affected there are traffic jams in The entire city in the Wasant Vihara wall collapsed trapping the workers who were under the rubble.

A bus carrying passengers flooded in an underpass and people had to use ropes to rescue those inside that bus and just a week ago we were writing stories about people dying because of a heat wave. in Delhi where 275 people died, this incident at the airport is not the only incident, take a look at other infrastructures that are collapsing or cracking the aalu in Mumbai that was inaugurated with great fanfare started showing cracks in just a few months, It actually opened in January and a few weeks ago there were cracks in the road, just a few weeks before the Monon arrived, the Mumbai Coastal Highway Tunnel, which is India's first undersea tunnel, started leaking.

Four new bridges in Bihar, one of them not even open yet, have collapsed in the last 8 days The Pragati Maidan underpass in Delhi, which was built with Rs 777 CR last year for the G20 Summit, has faced constant water leaks and it is completely flooded at the moment because of Delhi and this is a situation in Delhi, our national capital, which means it is indicative of the rest of the country, it is the seat of power of the central government of the Delhi government, several municipal bodies that are tasked with running the city and that have repeatedly failed when incidents like this happen when billboards fall and kill people when hospitals catch fire and newborn babies die when playgrounds catch fire media that control the narrative and decide whether you will remember or not quickly change the subject remember that we keep saying that public memory is short public memory is short because the media decides what you will remember if questions were asked and answered if a question was actually completed investigation if someone was held responsible and in our country compensation is quickly announced a committee is quickly set up and everyone moves quickly it is our responsibility as citizens to demand better citizens of Delhi deserve better year after year air pollution is killing people in Delhi year after year the city is flooding and none of these people who are in charge take Delhi seriously the story is similar in many other cities in the country as Citizens now is the time to put our foot down to get away from politics and demand accountability for decision makers to decide whether you and I return home safely at the end of the day.