Rains Wash Away Govt’s ‘World Class’ Infrastructure Claims

Each monsoon, Delhi and its suburbs that make up the national capital region (NCR) make the news for all the wrong reasons. Images and videos of waterlogged streets and residential areas, severely flooded underpasses, leaking roofs of large public spaces such as metro stations and airports, stranded vehicles and commuters, and displaced slum dwellers make the global news.

However, this year the news was even more shocking. On June 28 45-year-old Ramesh Kumar, a taxi driver, lost his life. He was crushed to death under the heavy debris of the canopy that fell on his, and other vehicles, parked at the Delhi airport. He reportedly died instantly.

The massive canopy collapsed due to the heavy rain the Capital witnessed on June 28, vehicles were wrecked and many others were injured in this mishap. This section of the Delhi airport's Terminal 1, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March, and a political slugfest highlighting the shoddy infrastructure ensued.

Speaking to The Citizen Gaurav Gogoi, Member of Parliament from Assam and a leader of the Congress party said that the incidents coming to light are major projects and alleged these projects were rushed through to align with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s schedule.

“These projects were rushed through so that these inaugurations can fit with the prime minister’s schedule and therefore there is this pressure to deliver that. But in the end the quality suffers and we come up with projects, which have not gone through their due diligence and have shoddy results,” Gogoi added.

Gogoi further said that all the taxpayers money is being wasted by the government. He added that the newly constructed Parliament where the sessions are taking place has also not been finished. “The party offices are all in the old Parliament. The new Parliament work is also not complete. The Ayodhya Mandir is not complete. So, it is just the pressure pulled by the PMO, rushed through the construction of these projects,” he added.

While, one pinned the responsibility for the canopy’s collapse on politicians clearing the tenders, and officials responsible for maintaining it, the right wing troll army claimed the airport was built in 2009, alluding that the Modi-led governments of the past 10 years were not to blame.

Incidentally, Praful Patel was the Union Aviation Minister in 2009 under the Congress-led UPA government. He is now a part of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance. Patel, a Rajya Sabha MP was quick to criticise the Opposition for playing "politics over dead bodies" reported NDTV.

“Obviously any building, when it is built, goes through mandatory design and planning clearances... so I can't comment on something built 15 years ago. I can only say, going forward, we are going to have buildings not just from cement and concrete but also with new-age materials…” Patel was quoted by NDTV.

Many others pointed out that the PM had “hurriedly inaugurated” an "incomplete terminal" ahead of the election campaigning. According to India Today, and other media, on March 10 PM Modi had “inaugurated or laid the foundation stone of 15 airport projects across the country which are worth more than Rs 9,800 crore”. This included “the expanded Terminal 1” of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Tragic images of the deceased flashed on social media all day, and on June 29, The Telegraph reported that the deceased’s 25-year-old son Ravinder had said that “after his father's cremation, all the family members will discuss and decide whether they would file a case against those responsible for his father's death”.

According to the news report, the family is “upset over the compensation amount offered by the government”. Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu, had announced Rs 20 lakh for the family as compensation. However, that will not last the young family very long.

The Citizen spoke to Narendra Singh, a cab driver in Delhi who expressed his anguish over the death of the cab driver at the airport.“It could have been anyone. They had just inaugurated the airport and it came down tumbling. This only shows how unserious the government is about things. They have been inaugurating temples and buildings without even finishing them,” he said.

Looking at the video, Singh expressed his anguish. “This is the reason why BJP lost so many seats. They have been either demolishing homes or inaugurating temples just to garner the votes. We people have understood the reality of this government,” he added.

A report in ‘The Hindustan Times’, stated that “the Delhi Police have registered a first information report (FIR) under sections 304A (death by negligence) and 337 (causing hurt by Act endangering life or personal safety of others) of Indian Penal Code”.

The Delhi tragedy came just a day after a similar incident at Madhya Pradesh's Dumna airport at Jabalpur. On Thursday June 27, a part of a fabric canopy collapsed on reportedly, “due to accumulation of water amid heavy rains and crushed a car parked below. However, no one was injured in the incident”.

According to news reports, airport director Rajeev Ratna Pandey said the canopy was installed to “beautify the 'drop and go' area”. However, “it ripped under the weight of the water and the water fell with great force on a car parked there."

This airport too had been virtually inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 10. The cost of this airport's new terminal building of the Dumna airport was reported to be Rs 450-crore.

After the Delhi airport collapse, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called this “criminal negligence” and listed out the collapsed projects that were inaugurated/ begun in the past 10 years by the Modi government.

These included “Delhi Airport (T1) roof collapse, Jabalpur airport roof collapse, Abysmal condition of Ayodhya's new roads, Ram Mandir leakage, Cracks in Mumbai Trans Harbour Link road, 13 new bridges falling down in Bihar in 2023 & 2024, Pragati Maidan Tunnel submerging, Morbi bridge collapse tragedy in Gujarat.”

The Civil Aviation Minister, meanwhile, said that “preliminary investigations on the recent collapse of Jabalpur and Delhi Airport rooftops” had been initiated.

Over 20 flights were cancelled on Saturday June 29, as well, reported PTI news agency.

Meanwhile, a day after the Delhi airport tragedy came the news of the collapse of a canopy at Gujarat’s Rajkot Hirasar international airport terminal.

By Saturday evening videos of water leaking at Terminal 3 of the newly inaugurated Terminal-3 at Lucknow's Amausi Airport also surfaced. This section of the airport was inaugurated last week. The incident adds to the growing list of ‘leaking airports' that so far include Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport Terminal-1, Rajkot and Jabalpur Airports.

Rajkot Hirasar international airport terminal collapse too was reportedly a result of heavy rain in the area. According to news reports, “the new greenfield airport was inaugurated by PM Modi in July 2023. The Airport Authority of India (AAI) built the new airport 25 km from Rajkot at Hirasar village.”

As tragedy after tragedy resulting from weak and damaged infrastructure are being reported in quick succession, citizens have taken to various social media platforms seeking accountability for these failures.

Lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan took to X and asked for accountability of the taxpayers' money. “When will we seek accountability for thousands of Crores of our Money spent on fancy airports, tunnels, Bridges, Ayodhya mandir, Ram path etc which collapse soon after Modi’s inauguration?”

Even before the literal sinking status of the National Capital this week, news and social media was abuzz with the pathetic condition of the Ayodhya Dham railway station, and the waterlogged, potholed roads in Ayodhya and leaks in the Ram Temple roof itself.

According to a report in the ‘New Indian Express’ “the first few spells of pre-monsoon rains” left the “temple town grappling with severe infrastructural challenges” on Wednesday morning. The town’s newly-built infrastructure collapsed as reports of caved-in roads, and waterlogged streets and homes began circulating.

The news report stated that the “13-km long and widened Rampath, the major arterial road leading to the upcoming temple” had “caved in at various points in between the Vidya Mandir School and District hospital”. It added that the authorities concerned just took to “repairing the patch deploying JCB machines”. The Public Works Department (PWD) reportedly “attributed the incidents of roads caving-in to execution of construction works in a haste” at the time of temple’s consecration.

Even before this there was shock as news of the Ayodhya Ram temple roof leaking after rains, broke. Claims that there was “no drainage system in place” were attributed to the temple's chief priest.

However, there were no responsibilities pinned and as per TNIE report the claim of seepage in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple “was later refuted by Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust on Thursday”.

On Friday, Uttar Pradesh government suspended three engineers each from both the PWD and Jal Nigam. Those suspended include an Executive Engineer, an Assistant Engineer, and a Junior Engineer, and the punishment was “in connection with the road subsidence issue” stated the news report.

There have also been reports of flooded roads from Patan, Bihar, as well as Uttarakhand's Haridwar, among other regions.

Meanwhile, five bridges have also collapsed in Bihar in the past few days according to multiple media reports. According to a report in The Mint newspaper, the incidents took place in Araria, Siwan, East Champaran, Kishanganj and Madhubani districts.

After the fifth bridge collapse, Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Jha said, “I had heard a speech of PM Modi in Kolkata when an overbridge had collapsed. He said it was not an act of God but an act of fraud. What will the PM say now?”

Tejashwi Yadav the former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar called out the “double engine NDA government of 6 parties”. He said that the NDA “under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, has sent auspicious and bright wishes of Mangalraj to the people of Bihar” with the collapsing bridges.

Yadav called out the “thousands of crores of rupees being lost by the public due to the collapse of bridges” and asked that “the truthful and incorruptible leaders, certified by the world champion Godi media” speak up on “these good governance feats?”

On Saturday, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Bihar’s former CM and head of Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), and now the Union Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) told the media that he “suspected conspiracy behind the collapse of bridges in Bihar”, even as the Opposition, and the general public have continued to raise concerns about poor quality of work at these large public infrastructure projects.

On Friday, news reports about the pillar of a bridge in Madhubani district being washed away came to light. It was being constructed at a cost of about ₹3 crore. On Thursday, a bridge caved in in Kishanganj district.

Manjhi claimed that, “These things are being done on purpose to tarnish the image of the government... Bridges are collapsing continuously. I think this is happening on purpose.”

He told the media that the government was “taking strict action against the contractors and engineers of the collapsed bridges” and that “The government will make sure that this does not happen again.

Meanwhile, in Maharashtra the state Congress president Nana Patole had alleged that cracks have emerged on Atul Setu sea bridge within months of its inauguration. However soon after this news created a buzz, the Hindustan Times reported that “the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) on Friday clarified that minor cracks were found on the approach road in Ulwe, which is not a part of the bridge but a service road connecting it.”

The 21.8 km long ‘Atal Bihari Vajpayee Sewri-Nhava Sheva Atal Setu’, which boasts of a 16.5 km sea-link, was inaugurated by PM Modi in January this year. It has cost ₹17,840 crore. Patole told the media that “around half a kilometre of road has sustained one-foot-deep cracks in it, which indicates the level of corruption in this government.”

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has stated that thunderstorms with gusty winds are likely in some areas over Delhi and neighbouring areas this weekend. According to IMD Significant amount of rainfall is also predicted for Chhattisgarh, Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Gangetic West Bengal, West Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Coastal Karnataka, Kerala, Mahe, Andaman & Nicobar Islands.