MoS Murlidhar Mohol criticises opposition for politicizing Delhi airport canopy collapse

Story by ATV | Posted by Sumana | Date 29-06-2024

MoS Murlidhar Mohol

Pune

Minister of State (MoS) for Civil Aviation and Cooperation, Murlidhar Mohol, on Saturday criticized opposition leaders for politicizing the Delhi airport canopy collapse incident, which resulted in one death and eight injuries on Friday morning.

"It is wrong to bring politics into every issue. Some leaders commented and tweeted that it was inaugurated in 2024 during PM Modi's time, but this happened in 2008. In the incident that happened yesterday, one person died and five to six people were injured, so politics should not be involved at such a time," the MoS told ANI.

Mohol also assured that the Civil Aviation Ministry has taken precautions to prevent such accidents in the future.

"When this incident happened, our Cabinet Minister, Civil Aviation Ministry decided to conduct a structural audit of our terminals across the country. We have taken precautions to ensure that such accidents do not happen in the future," he added.

Assuring proactive measures regarding the Delhi Airport canopy collapse incident, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu on Saturday said that a war room has been constituted to ensure refunds or alternate flights for affected passengers.

The Minister assured that necessary proactive measures will be taken to prevent such incidents in the future. He also expressed his condolences for the loss of life in the canopy collapse incident at Terminal 1 of Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport.

"The incident that happened at the Delhi airport is very tragic, and I offer my condolences to the one individual who lost his life. Some people were also injured in the incident; they have been taken to the hospital and are undergoing treatment," Ram Mohan Naidu said.

He further stated that the situation is under control.

"We have taken control of the situation, and as soon as the incident was reported, all the emergency response teams, including teams of NDRF and CISF, immediately went to the spot and engaged in relief operations to prevent any further damage," he said.

To ensure such incidents don't recur, the MoS said, "We don't want a similar incident to happen again, so we have brought in a special team from IIT Delhi's structural engineering department. They will provide an initial inspection report. Based on this, necessary actions will be taken to prevent such incidents."

"We will ensure a structural preliminary inspection is done at all airports. We have sought a report from all the airports across the country within two to five days, upon which we will determine the necessary measures to prevent such incidents in the future," he further added.

Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) announced on Saturday that operations at Terminal 1 will remain suspended till further notice.

Terminal 1 handles domestic flights, including those by IndiGo and SpiceJet. All operations have been temporarily shifted to Terminal 2 and Terminal 3.

"Flight operations at Delhi airport are normal and operating from Terminal-2 & 3 only. All flights from Terminal-1 have been shifted to Terminal-3 and Terminal-v2," Delhi airport said in a post on X.