Delhi airport flooding: Govt to pull up GMR

The Civil Aviation Ministry on Friday took a serious note of the flooding of runway and arrival terminal as also blowing off of a roof of the new domestic departure terminal at Indira Gandhi Airport here due to heavy rains and high-velocity wind, leading to disruption of flights.

Ministry sources said a report has been sought from Delhi International Airport Limited, which has modernized the airport and maintains it, on the flooding and collapse of the terminal roof.

Sources have told NDTV that Civil Aviation Ministry will  pull up GMR for Delhi airport flood. GMR owns a majority stake in DIAL, which operates Delhi Airport.

Rains and winds blew off a part of the roof of the new domestic departure terminal at the Delhi airport and disrupted flight operations for almost two hours as the runway and the arrival terminal got flooded.

However, there were no reports of any one being injured in the collapse, sources at the airport said.

Over 20 flights were delayed and ten diverted to Lucknow and Jaipur as the airport area here witnessed 31.8 mm of rains in a span of just 30 minutes and a wind speed of about 100 kms per hour.

The visibility at the airport fell less than 100 metre due to the rains, and many flights preparing to land were diverted to nearby airports.

Delhi came to a standstill on Friday evening as heavy rains accompanied by winds lashed the city, inundating several low-lying areas and leading to huge traffic jams in New Delhi.

Vehicular movement went haywire in the national capital after the city received record rains, leading to waterlogging in many areas, including the VVIP areas of Chanakyapuri.

Eyewitnesses said diplomatic areas in Chanakyapuri was waterlogged and long queues of vehicles were seen on the road where a number of embassies including that of United States,
Australia and China are located.

Traffic snarls were also reported from the busy ITO, Connaught Place, Shankar Road, Akbar Road, Bahadur Shah Marg, South Avenue and Vikas Marg among other areas.

Parts of Raisina Road right next to Central Secretariat Metro station caved in, forming 10 metre deep crater, but no one was injured in the incident. Meanwhile, a wall collapse was reported from Paharganj area.

The rains, which started at around 3 pm and continued for around two hours, left a trail of misery for commuters with massive traffic snarls across the city stranding people.

The rains brought down temperature from 35 degrees Celsius to 24 degrees with the city recording 74 mm rainfall till 5.30 pm. Besides, the Met office in Palam recorded 31.8 mm rainfall.

"I got stranded at the Parliament Street for more than an hour. The traffic still shows no signs of moving. I am worried about my mother at home," Muthuvel, a senior manager at a private firm, said.

At Raisina Road, the crater which formed as a result of the caving in was around 10 m in depth and six metre wide, eyewitnesses said.

Services on the Delhi Metro were not affected due to the rains and the trains were running normally. (With NDTV inputs)