As monsoon triggers airport mishaps in India, negligent maintenance hogs the spotlight

With the monsoon season ongoing in India, fliers may feel a bit anxious with several airports reporting infrastructure-related accidents across the nation in recent times.
The mishaps, often fatal, triggered fears of similar occurrences in the upcoming month when more rainfalls are expected.

One of the worst mishaps occurred in Delhi where one person died and eight others were injured after the canopy in Terminal 1 of the airport collapsed amid heavy rainfalls.

Water leakage issues have been reported from Bangalore and Lucknow airports as well.

All these episodes have ignited the question of lack of proper maintenance of this crucial infrastructure in the world’s largest democracy where voters exercised their franchise across April and May months to elect a new government.
PM Narendra Modi and his BJP-led NDA government returned to power in June for a record third term with the promise of creating a ‘Viksit Bharat’, a developed India, by 2047.

Here is the list of a few airport mishap incidents which occurred in recent months that undermine Modi’s vision of a “Viksit Bharat”.

Delhi

One of the worst of the recent mishaps was reported from Delhi’s busy airport where amid record rainfall the canopy collapsed in Terminal 1, leading to the death of a person and injuring eight others.

The Terminal 1 building has been shut for air operations and could take a month or two to resume operations, reported News 18 news channel.

Officials told the news channel that once the IIT Delhi audit report comes, the entire canopy structure of T1 is likely to be brought down and rebuilt before passengers are allowed back in the building.

Guwahati

Away from Delhi, in the Northeastern part of India, the Guwahati airport in Assam capital city reported a ‘roofing issue’ in March when authorities informed the Indian government that a part of the roof was old and allowed rainwater to gush through the broken section. Several videos of the incident went viral on social media with people describing it as a ‘waterfall’ inside the airport.

Jabalpur

Another canopy collapse incident occurred in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, which left the car of an Income Tax officer damaged.

According to reports, a technical investigation of the incident is still going on.

Officials told News 18 that this was the first instance of heavy rains that the airport had faced and it was being audited as to what structural changes are required to augment the building and the canopies.

Initial assessment suggests that the canopy’s tent could not withstand the pressure of the accumulating rainwater and caused the iron tent section to fall on the car, the news channel reported.

Rajkot

Gujarat’s Rajkot witnessed the collapse of a canopy, but this time no casualty was reported.

A report submitted by Rajkot Airport authorities to the Centre suggested that local maintenance staff tried to use bamboo to clear the clogged drain on the canopy and ended up tearing the canopy material.

“Dry leaves and similar debris clogged the drain. Water accumulated after rains. The local staff tried to use bamboo to clear the drain but ended up tearing the canopy,” sources told News 18.

Following the mishaps, Indian Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu had ordered an audit of 140 airports across the country.