After canopy collapses at airports, AAI plans structural audit for the one in Chennai

AAI conducts structural audits at airports following recent canopy collapses, ensuring passenger safety with expert engineering assessments.

Following the recent canopy collapses at airports, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) plans to carry out a structural audit at the airport here. In the last week of June, one person died and six were injured in a canopy collapse amid heavy downpour at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. The next day, a canopy collapsed at the Rajkot airport too.

According to AAI officials, several airports across the country, including the one in the city, will be subject to a structural audit soon. “We have been directed to do an audit due to the incident in New Delhi. This has been planned as a precautionary measure to ensure that passengers are safe. The study is likely to go on for about 15-20 days,” an official said.

At the airport here, the audit will begin in a few days, with a team of engineering experts from Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) carrying it out, another official said. In the Chennai airport, canopies have been raised outside the terminals to not only enhance its look but also to provide shelter for waiting passengers.

The audit will examine all infrastructure at the airport and determine whether any structures need strengthening. This report will be submitted to the AAI, after which it will take necessary actions, he added.

“When the old domestic terminals had issues of glass panels breaking, an extensive study was carried out. The faults were rectified. We no longer have those problems in both domestic terminals and the newly constructed international terminal. Even during the recent Cyclone Michaung, there was no damage to the airport infrastructure,” the official said.

The AAI plans to do a periodic inspections and audits of the airport infrastructure in the future, officials said. “It is not clear whether these will be half-yearly or annual audits yet. We will get to know once the first audit is completed,” a source said.