Delhi T-1 roof collapse: 'Structural audit of all airports ordered,' says Aviation Minister Naidu

The incident which has happened at the Delhi T1 airport, the collapse of a roof of one of the terminal buildings. It has been a very tragic incident and I would like to offer by condolences to the family which has lost one life and also some. Some of them were injured in the incident and they were immediately taken to the hospital. They were given proper care and we are taking full care of them so that all the medical facilities that the need are provided and other than that we have taken control of the situation and now T1 has been completely closed. Immediately after the incident happened, all the emergency response teams and DRFCISF teams, all the teams have arrived at the site and they've done what is required so that there's no more damage that gets done. So T1 was totally evacuated, closed for the time being and the all the flight movement has been shifted to T2 and T3. And our initial thought process was that we will take care of all the passengers who were distressed at the time. So whoevers flights got cancelled. They are being given a full refund and also alternate travel if that is the choice that they provide. And we have taken a decision at the ministry that we are going to pass a circular that whatever refund is there, it has to be provided within seven days and also any alternate travel also will be provided according to that choice. And to ensure that this happens, we have set up war rooms right at the airport in T2 terminal and T3 terminal. And we have released a statement from the ministry also which has all these numbers. And we are taking care from the ministry to ensure that these help lines also work every day by placing one officer from our side also in these war rooms. And also when this kind of incident happens, there is a spike in airfares considering the environment that it creates. So we have put in another circular to the airlines also saying that the Airfire shouldn't be hiked at any cost. They have to maintain the prices. It is a it is a distress situation, it is a crisis situation. So we have sent a circular to the airline saying that they shouldn't raise the airfares also. And other than this we are, we were worried about why the incident has happened. We don't want this incident to happen again. So we have brought in a special team from IIT Delhi from the structural engineering department. They are going through the inspection and they will provide the ministry with the initial inspection report. Based on that report, we are going to take necessary measures or necessary actions will be taken according to the initial report that is being provided. And also there is another incident which has happened in Jabalpur airport also in the Jabalpur airport also, we are sending a team from AAI Airport Authority of India who are going to do another inspection there and give us a report for further measures that need to be taken. And we don't want this kind of incidents to happen anywhere in the country. So to ensure that we are getting a structural inspection done, preliminary inspection done at all the airports and I have been very clear to my ministry that this report has to come from each and every airport in the country and it has to be on my table within two to five days. So once all the reports from all the airports come into our ministry, we are going to review all of them and we are going to see if any long term measures, any policy making measures need to be taken so that no such incident happens anytime anywhere in the country. So that is one precaution we are taking. Be very sad that we have lost one life in the incident. We are like I said, we are offering our condolences to the family also and we have requested the Delhi airport to take care of the compensation. So we are given 20,00,000 compensation to the deceased family and whoever is injured, he's going to get three 3,00,000. No, I'm a little surprised that opposition wants to do politics on this kind of issue also, especially saying that this has been a terminal which has been inaugurated by Prime Minister Modiji. But it is, it is totally fake news that they are propagating. Modiji has inaugurated a terminal which is another building and it is totally intact. It is totally perfect in condition. The building which collapsed, the roof of the building which collapsed is the old building. It was constructed in 2009. So its a 15 year old building. So that is where the damage happened. But using this situation to create a political scenario to kind of take, take a dig at the government, I don't think it is a good precedent. But from my side, I'm giving assurance to the opposition that even after the incident, whatever needs to be taken, the government is committed to take all those actions, necessary actions. Whoever is, whoever is control of this, they will be taken action on if if they have committed anything wrong, that much we are assuring everyone.