Passengers had to sweat it out at the domestic terminal of the Delhi Airport after the AC stopped working
Highlights
- Excavation work at adjacent metro station damages water pipe of AC system
- Delhi Metro deployed extra manpower to fix the pipe
- Authorities switched on fans; requested airlines for early boarding
Hundreds of passengers had to sweat it out at the domestic terminal of the Delhi Airport today as its air-conditioning system failed during excavation work at the adjacent construction site of Delhi Metro's Terminal 1 station.
Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) authorities said the incident happened around 3.30 pm when a portion of the pipe that supplies water to the cooling system was damaged during the construction work for the upcoming station's entry and exit points.
"Due to construction work by DMRC, the HVAC chilled water supply line (air-conditioning) of Terminal-1D got damaged today. This affected the cooling capacity of a portion of the terminal," a DIAL (Delhi International Airport Limited) spokesperson said.
As the situation turned uncomfortable, many passengers took to Twitter to vent their anger at the authorities, with one comparing it to a "sauna bath".
"Delhi airport terminal 1D is like 1000s of ppl put in steam bath with no exhaust!! Needs urgent attn," Parth tweeted while another post bySushil Trivedi read, "Terminal 1 Delhi airport AC not working. Sweltering hot since many hours."
When contacted, both DIAL and DMRC said that they had deployed extra manpower to repair the damage.
DIAL added that it switched on the split air-conditioners, blowers and exhaust fans to minimise inconvenience to passengers during the repair work.
Inside the terminal, the temperature has been brought down to 25 degrees Celsius and additional 30 high-capacity fans have been put in place, the DIAL spokesperson said.
"DIAL has also deployed extra manpower, distributed complementary water bottles and have requested airline for early boarding of passengers," it said in a statement.