Roof collapse at Delhi airport kills one, heavy rain disrupts capital

Heavy rainfall and winds brought down a roof at the main airport in New Delhi on Friday, killing one person and shutting down a busy domestic terminal, while flooded streets and traffic snarls caused widespread disruption in the Indian capital.
About 5.85 inches of rain fell over three hours on the airport area in the early morning, more than the average for all of June, according to the national weather office.
Delhi’s main Safdarjung weather station recorded nine inches of rainfall in the 24 hours ending 8.30am (0300GMT), its highest 24-hour rainfall in June in 88 years.
The city of 20mn people had faced searing heatwaves earlier this month. A wall at a building site in southwest Delhi collapsed in the downpour, with three labourers feared trapped in 12 feet of deep water and mud, a fire service spokesperson said.
At the airport, a portion of roof, the canopy, a column and its supporting beams at Terminal 1’s departure area collapsed, crushing four vehicles, airport authorities said in a statement.
The entire terminal complex was shut down and flight operations at the terminal were suspended indefinitely, they added.
Eight injured people were taken to hospital, Atul Garg, director of the Delhi Fire Service, said, adding rescue operations were now complete.
Images from ANI news agency showed a taxi crushed under a wrecked metal pillar at the entrance area of the terminal with puddles all around. A column and its supporting beams collapsed on other vehicles.
At least 26 flights were cancelled and more than 180 were delayed, according to data from flight tracking platform Flightaware.
Domestic carrier Spicejet said it had cancelled eight flights while IndiGo said all flights from the terminal have been cancelled until midnight. From 2pm (0830GMT) flight arrivals and departures at Terminal 1 were diverted to the airport’s other two terminals, Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu said. He added that an inquiry has been ordered into the collapse.
Terminal 1, one of three at the country’s biggest and busiest airport, was recently refurbished with its area more than tripled.
Many other parts of Delhi were flooded, including a tunnel opposite the venue that was the site of last September’s G20 summit.
Some cars were trapped in thigh-deep water in chaotic scenes across the city.
Metro services were affected, people had to navigate through waterlogged roads and traffic snarls were reported. Electricity supply was switched off in some waterlogged and low-lying areas as a precautionary measure, one of Delhi’s power suppliers said.
The chaos prompted complaints on social media about the capital’s creaking infrastructure.
Ahead of the April-May general election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated or laid the foundation stone of new terminal buildings at 15 airports. Both Delhi’s Terminal 1 and the terminal at Jabalpur were part of the projects.
Opposition parties said projects were inaugurated in a hurry before the election.
“Corruption and criminal negligence is responsible for the collapse of shoddy infrastructure falling like a deck of cards, in the past 10 years of Modi Govt,” Mallikarjun Kharge, president of the main opposition Congress party, said on X.
Aviation Minister Naidu defended the government, saying the roof collapse at Delhi’s airport was part of an old building that was opened in 2009 and not the one Modi inaugurated in March.