Passengers taking an early morning flight out of Terminal 1D of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) had to sweat it out as the air-conditioning of the terminal, which had collapsed on Thursday afternoon, took nearly 18 hours to be completely restored.
The terminal's AC had stopped functioning after the chilled water supply line to the system was badly damaged due to excavation work of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), just outside the terminal.
As a result passengers had a harrowing time even as the private airport operator Delhi International Airport Ltd. (DIAL) arranged for blowers and exhaust fans, apart from switching on split ACs to minimise inconvenience.
Complementary water bottles were also provided and airlines were requested for early boarding.
A joint team of engineers from DMRC and DIAL worked overnight to repair the damaged pipeline, but the system could only be stabilised by 9 a.m. on Friday.
“Due to fresh welding and other repairs, the AC couldn't be started at full blast and it took some time for the temperature to become comfortable,” said an official, who didn't wish to be identified.
Mystery
What remains unanswered is how the DMRC, which has a decade of experience in tunnelling work that requires shifting of utilities, damaged the pipeline.
“The DMRC didn't have proper permissions for excavation and didn't have the map of utilities. Proper standard operating procedures were not followed by them,” alleged an airport official, who didn't wish to be named.
“High-tension cables were located nearby and if these were damaged, it could have been very dangerous. They also shouldn’t have used blast technology for the excavation work,” the official said.
Both DIAL and DMRC didn't wish to officially comment on the issue.
Senior DMRC officials, however, said that the excavation work was carried out after thorough consultations with DIAL. “The high-tension wires were away from the site. There were safeguards in place and valves were immediately closed and pumps were operated to take care of minor spillage of the residual water in the pipeline,” said a senior DMRC official, who didn’t wish to be named.
