AFP | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com The roof of a terminal building at New Delhi's international airport partially collapsed in heavy rains early yesterday, killing one person, rescuers said, months after a refurbishment project was inaugura
AFP | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
The roof of a terminal building at New Delhi’s international airport partially collapsed in heavy rains early yesterday, killing one person, rescuers said, months after a refurbishment project was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Images posted online showed vehicles crushed under giant steel girders at the departure forecourt of the airport’s Terminal 1, one of several projects formally launched by Modi in March ahead of the country’s general election.
The terminal is used for domestic flights only and airport authorities said all flights departing from it had been cancelled until early afternoon.
“Due to heavy rain since early this morning, a portion of the canopy... collapsed around 5 am,” they said in a statement posted online. “Emergency personnel are working to provide all necessary assistance and medical aid to those affected.”
Other terminals were operating as normal, as were arrivals at Terminal 1, it added. “Eight people have been injured, one person is dead. Rescue operations have been completed,” Atul Garg, director of Delhi Fire Services told AFP. Infrastructure spending has been a priority under Modi, and the Delhi airport -- named after his assassinated predecessor Indira Gandhi -- is one of the country’s flagship projects.
At the scene, civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu told reporters: “We are taking this incident seriously...I want to clarify that the building inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi is on the other side and the building that collapsed here is an old building and was opened in 2009.”
A section of roof at Jabalpur airport in Madhya Pradesh also collapsed yesterday, reports said, with no one injured. Delhi has been hit by heavy rains in recent days as the annual monsoon reached the Indian capital after a long stretch of heatwaves and punishingly high temperatures. The downpours have brought the city to a standstill, with images shared by the city’s police showing personnel clearing trees and helping residents stuck in waterlogged areas.
