“The rest of the terminal building has been sealed off and everything is being thoroughly inspected to avoid any further untoward incident here,” he added. “Passengers are our number one priority.”
Stranded passengers complained about lack of clear communication from authorities. “About 800 of us are stuck here, but there is no responsible person who can talk to us,” one passenger told a local television network. “We stand here unaware.”
After the initial suspension, authorities diverted all operations to the airport’s other two terminals, which also handle international flights. IndiGo Airlines, which controls 60 percent of India’s domestic airline market, initially canceled flights scheduled to depart from the terminal, according to trade analysts.
Atul Garg, director of the Delhi Fire Department, said rescue operations were carried out for three hours by fire safety officials. Parts of New Delhi were inundated with knee-deep water during monsoons, bringing traffic to a standstill and downed power lines.
There has long been criticism of poor maintenance in the country and A Lack of supervision over contractors in large building projects. India has seen a major infrastructure boom in the past years to meet the growing demand for transportation.
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“Rapid infrastructure development in recent years with poor quality, lack of monitoring and maintenance, has led to corruption,” said Anup Kumar Srivastava, former adviser to the National Disaster Management Authority. “A common man’s life is now at risk when traveling on a bridge, tunnel or dam.”
India’s aviation sector, with the world’s third largest market, has built 75 new airports and domestic passenger traffic has doubled over the past decade.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has heavily marketed the country’s ambitious infrastructure drive with frequent trips to inaugurate highways, railway stations and airports. His party’s recent election campaign made infrastructure development a central focus.
Three months ago, Modi had inaugurated a revamped terminal at the same airport, but officials were quick to clarify that it was not for a part of the airport. Members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have blamed the Congress party, which was in power when that particular roof was built, for the airport collapse.
A Singing together of critics However, social media called the Delhi incident the latest in a long line of infrastructural tragedies to plague the country, despite being specifically billed for maintenance. On Thursday, rains caused a partial collapse of the canopy at an airport in Madhya Pradesh state that had been opened a few weeks ago.
“Corruption and criminal negligence are the cause of poor infrastructure decay,” wrote Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the opposition Congress party. Mail.
Recently, a train accident in Bengal killed nine people and a year ago, 275 people were killed and around 1,000 injured when three trains piled up. Late last year, a collapsed tunnel trapped 41 construction workers nearly 300 feet underground for nearly three weeks.
Delhi International Airport Ltd, the company that operates the facility, built in 2009, announced a compensation of $24,000 to the families of those who died and $3,500 each to those injured in the collapse.
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