Following two incidents of canopy collapses at airport -- Delhi and Rajkot -- the BJP on Saturday took a swipe at former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, saying nobody should blame him for it as he didn't build enough airports.
Citing the incident at Rajkot airport, BJP's IT Cell head Amit Malviya said that the "canopy collapse tearing away because of heavy wind and rain is not the same as infrastructure collapsing".
He said that if it were left to Nehru, "we would all be traveling in bullock carts, certified by DRDO", adding that the Ministry of Civil Aviation "has ordered security review of all small and big airports in the country".
Repair works at the Rajkot Airport in Gujarat are underway, official said.
At Delhi Airport's Terminal 1, a massive roof collapse took place on Friday, leaving one cab driver dead and many others injured.
Following the incident, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu visited the spot and announced a compensation of Rs 20 lakh for the family of the deceased.
Meanwhile, a blame game broke out between the Opposition and the Centre, with Kinjarapu having to defend Prime Minister Narendra Modi over claims of the latter inaugurating the Terminal 1 in March 2024.
"We are taking this incident seriously...I want to clarify that the building inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi is on the other side and the building that collapsed here is an old building and was opened in 2009," Kinjarapu told reporters.
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge had also hit out at the Modi government in an X post and 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 Civil Aviation Ministry also directed the airlines to ensure that there is abnormal hike in airfares, as operations at T1 -- which mainly saw IndiGo and SpiceJet -- were suspended temporarily, adding burden to that of T2 and T3.
Notably, a 24x7 War Room was also set by the Aviation Ministry to deal with the situation and to ensure that the refund amount for the cancelled flights are processed to the affected passengers within 7 days.
