A man was killed and eight were injured after a portion of the roof at Delhi airport’s Terminal-1 collapsed on parked cars amid heavy rainfall on Friday morning, prompting questions about shoddy construction in a hurry to complete projects.

Police identified the dead man as a taxi driver, Ramesh Kumar. PTI said an iron beam had fallen on his cab during the 5am mishap.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated Terminal-1 on March 10.

On Thursday, a portion of the canopy at the new terminal building of Jabalpur airport in Madhya Pradesh — also inaugurated by Modi on March 10 — had fallen on a car after heavy rainfall. No injury was reported.

It was not clear whether the injured included any passenger inside the terminal, which handles 1,400 domestic flights every day but would have been largely
empty at 5am.

Opposition leaders alleged “corruption and criminal negligence”, flagging how Modi had inaugurated or laid the foundation stones for new terminals at 15 airports ahead of the April-June general election. They alleged that incomplete terminals had been inaugurated prematurely with votes in mind.

But newly appointed civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said the roof crash had occurred over a part of Terminal 1 that had been built about 15 years ago, and not over the new part inaugurated by Modi just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Government sources confirmed that this part of Terminal-1, the old departure forecourt, was constructed in 2008-09 when the UPA was in power. They said the work had been sublet by main contractor GMR to private contractors.

However, they did not explain whether there had been lapses in maintenance.

IndiGo and SpiceJet, which operate from Terminal-1, were forced to cancel several flights while the rest were rescheduled to Terminal-2 and Terminal-3.

Airport officials blamed the roof crash on heavy rain and strong winds. “While the cause for the collapse is being assessed, the primary cause seems to be the continued heavy rainfall over the past few hours,” an airport official said.

“Four vehicles were damaged and eight individuals received minor injuries and were provided immediate medical assistance at the Medanta Centre at Delhi Airport. The injured have been shifted to ESI Hospital and Indian Spinal Injury Centre (they were later referred to Safdarjung Hospital)....”

In a post on X, Naidu said the directorate-general of civil aviation had been told to carry out a high-level probe.

His ministry said the Airports Authority of India had been asked to issue a circular to all minor and major airports to conduct a thorough inspection of structural strength, to be completed in the next two to five days and the reports submitted.

It said structural engineers from IIT Delhi had been asked to investigate the roof crash.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said: “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.”

The dead man’s son Ravinder Kumar, also a cab driver, alleged “criminal negligence” on the part of airport authorities and sought the arrest of “those responsible for my father’s death”.

Ramesh is survived by his wife Asha, sons Ravinder (25) and Ashish (22), and daughters Rashi (21) and Bhawana (18). They live in Rohini, northwest Delhi. Asha is a domestic help.

Delhi airport has announced a compensation of Rs 20 lakh for the family of the dead man, and Rs 3 lakh each for the injured.

Fares, refund

The civil aviation ministry said “an advisory has been sent to all airlines to ensure that this situation does not lead to steep increase in airfare”.

A “war room” will be established to refund passengers fully for the cancelled flights or provide tickets for alternative routes, depending on availability, it added.