New Delhi:
A taxi driver died as the roof of Delhi airport’s terminal-1 collapsed after heavy rains on Saturday night. Ramesh Kumar was rescued from a car on which an iron beam had fallen but was declared dead when he was taken to the Medanta Hospital near the terminal.
The 45-year-old’s death has left his family in shock and grief. Ramesh, a resident of Vijay Vihar in Rohini, Delhi, was the sole breadwinner of his family, which includes two sons and two daughters. His son, Ravindra, expressed concern about how the family will manage without their father’s support.
“We received a call at 8.30am in the morning. They told us that our father fainted at the airport and has been taken to the hospital. But they did not tell us that such a tragedy has occured,” Ravindra says.
“When we went to the airport and asked the cops what was happening, they took us to a police station and kept us there till 4pm. Then they took us to the hospital, but did not tell us that he has died. After waiting for 2-3 hours, we were asked to come the next day and collect the body after post-mortem,” he adds.
The family’s grief has been compounded by the fact that Ramesh’s daughters’ weddings are upcoming, and they are now worried about how they will manage the expenses.
They are demanding a judicial inquiry into the incident and sought adequate compensation from the government.
The city witnessed heavy rains from around 3 am. At the airport’s busy Terminal 1, the rain destruction took a tragic turn. Around 5 am, the massive canopy covering the departure area gave way, trapping several people. Besides the roof sheet, support beams collapsed, pinning down parked cars.
Several videos of water accumulated on the shed also surfaced on social media. One of the videos shows there are cracks and leaks on the shed.
