JOIN USThe glass and steel facade is smooth and impeccable. But looks can be deceiving as the modern Chennai Airport’s international and domestic terminals, renovated at a cost of Rs 2,015 crore, is a crumbling edifice wrapped in swanky concrete.
Shoddy work has reduced the whole modernisation exercise of the airport to one of mirth and ridicule as there are cracks in the ceiling, tiles have fallen off, roofs leak, toilets stink and even the flooring is broken.
The misfortune of falling glass panes and false ceiling collapse continues to haunt Chennai with the number of such mishaps going up to 20 since the new terminals were commissioned in 2013.
Chennai airport was once the best airport in the country. But today, it is in a bad shape. There is no attractive interior plan to install art or sculpture to engage the passengers a bit either.
With the mobile phone technology at its peak, none of the passengers bother to even look at the old stereotyped pay phones “attractively” installed near the security check area.
“Due to poor administration, the airport’s interior is in bad shape. There should be some mechanism. Sometimes, passengers have even got stuck in the lift due to generator failure,” Air Passengers Association of India (APAI) secretary Hiren Shah told Deccan Herald. Sources allege that the poor maintenance was an attempt to circuitously make an impression among passengers to voice for privatisation.
“Even if that was the case, why passenger should suffer? It is like a bus stop with travellers standing in long queue especially in the peak hours. Though there is a remedy to this no one wants to take any steps to clear it,” Shah added.
Airport sources said that recently a big glass door at the domestic terminal came crashing down, causing panic among passengers and security personnel. A 20x15 ft glass door at Gate no 4 of the departure area collapsed during peak hour in the morning, with four different flights scheduled to leave the airport around the time. The incident occurred even as passengers, booked on the four flights, were entering the airport through the gate.
The passengers were gripped by panic and security personnel on duty near the gate ran away.
A few days later, a glass panel in the same area located 30 ft above also collapsed.
A boy suffered scratches by falling glass slivers in the incident, the latest in a series of mishaps involving collapse of false ceilings, glass doors and cracks in granite slabs at the new terminals which were inaugurated by Vice-President Hamid Ansari in January 2013.
The recurring mishaps have raised serious questions about the quality of the material used in the construction of these terminals since huge money was spent on the revamp.