NEW DELHI, June 29: After the Delhi airport, a canopy at the passenger pickup and drop area outside the terminal of Hirasar airport in Rajkot in Gujarat collapsed on Saturday amid heavy rains and strong winds.
No injuries have been reported in the incident. A video, which is now viral on social media, shows the canopy collapsing at the passenger pickup and drop area outside the airport terminal.
The new greenfield airport was inaugurated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July 2023. The Airport Authority of India (AAI) built the new airport 25 km from Rajkot at Hirasar village.
This is the third incident of infrastructure collapse at Indian airport in under a week after Delhi’s IGI terminal-1 and Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur airport. On Friday early morning, a canopy over the drop and pick-up point at Terminal1 at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi collapsed over cars following heavy rains. One person died and six others were injured in the accident with the terminal suspending flight operations.
Earlier on Thursday, a part of fabric canopy on the premises of the Dumna airport in Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh collapsed due to accumulation of water amid heavy rains and crushed a car parked below, officials said. No injuries were reported in the accident. The project officer was directed to carry out a probe and strict orders have been issued to ensure that such an incident doesn’t recur.
(Manas Dasgupta)