Probe ordered into Delhi airport roof collapse incident

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) ordered a probe into the roof collapse incident early Friday at Terminal 1 of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), and directed the airport operator — GMR group-led Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) — to carry out a thorough inspection.

The inspection will be supervised by aviation safety regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu said after visiting the site.

Additionally, the Ministry decided that all airports will undergo a detailed structural inspection. On Thursday, a portion of the canopy at the new terminal building of Jabalpur airport in Madhya Pradesh caved in and fell on a car after heavy rainfall.

No injury was reported in that incident. According to DIAL, a canopy at the old departure forecourt of Terminal 1 collapsed around 5 am Friday amid heavy rainfall.

In addition to the probes and inspections ordered by the Ministry, DIAL also constituted a technical committee to investigate the incident, the airport operator said, adding that the committee will give its report “as soon as possible”.

“The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has been directed to issue a circular to all minor and major airports to conduct a thorough inspection of structural strength. These inspections must be completed within the next 2-5 days, and the reports are to be submitted to the Ministry of Civil Aviation,”

the Ministry said in a statement after a high-level review meeting chaired by Naidu.“Based on the findings, the need for increasedsafety measures and the development of long-term policies to prevent the recurrence of such unfortunate incidents will be formulated at priority,” it said.

“Structural Engineers from IIT Delhi have been asked to immediately assess the incident at Delhi T1. Further examination will be decided based on their initial findings. Similarly, AAI will have the Jabalpur incident examined,” the Ministry said.

In a post on social media platform X, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol said the DGCA has been instructed to carry out a high-level probe into the Delhi airport incident, adding that the situation is also being monitored by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

After inspecting the incident site, Naidu said that the part of Terminal 1 where the incident took place was the older structure built around 15 years ago and not the new part of the terminal inaugurated by the Prime Minister just ahead of this year’s Lok Sabha polls.

According to sources in the government, the roof that collapsed was constructed in 2008-09 and the work was delegated by GMR to private contractors.

Naidu’s clarification came amid sharp attacks from some Opposition leaders who alleged that an incomplete terminal was hurriedly inaugurated by Modi in view of the general elections. The Prime Minister had inaugurated the revamped Terminal 1 on March 10.

Terminal 1 is used only for domestic flight operations, with IndiGo and SpiceJet operating flights from the terminal. As a precautionary measure, all flight operations from Terminal 1 have been suspended till further notice and rescheduled to operate from Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 till the impacted areas are restored for operations, DIAL said. The IGIA has a total of three passenger terminals, the largest being Terminal 3.