In the early hours of June 28, as a thunderstorm lashed the national capital, a portion of the canopy at the departure forecourt of the Delhi airport collapsed.
The severity of the incident was lost on a partially submerged city grappling with an unprecedented deluge. A number of vehicles parked beneath the canopy were crushed and many people were injured. Ramesh Kumar, a 45-year-old driver, seated in one of the taxis and possibly waiting for a passenger, was crushed to death as the roof of his vehicle took the full weight of a structural member that tumbled over.
The collapse of as many as 13 bridges in Bihar around the same time went relatively unnoticed compared with the incident in Delhi. Moreover, given Bihar’s unenviable reputation for corruption and callousness, the fate of the bridges was brushed aside as being along expected lines. Use of inferior materials and poor project management were among the reasons cited for such disasters in the state.
Had the roof at the Delhi airport crashed at a busier hour, the number of casualties would have been significantly higher. In the flurry of the chaos that ensued, not enough attention was paid to the fact that it wasn’t just the false ceiling panels that obscured the space frame of the canopy that had collapsed. The steel columns and supporting ties that held up the roof had also fallen down. The accident was a structural failure.
The blame game
A blame game broke out at the highest level.
In Parliament, the opposition made it a point to mention that the prime minister had inaugurated a wing at the airport in question. The treasury benches responded that this wing was different and the portion that had collapsed was actually built when the opposition was in power.
The erstwhile aviation minister, now in the governing coalition, said that the building was over 15 years old and had been subjected to extensive usage. While he recommended a thorough audit, a leading professional heading the civil engineering division of the Bureau of Indian Standards that concerns itself with quality certification said that public buildings should be designed to last 75 years in India.
The construction behemoth Larsen and Toubro felt it necessary to issue a clarification that they were not associated with this project. Media reports said the designer was architect Hafeez Contractor while the building was constructed by B L Kashyap and Sons. Tata Engineering Services were the project managers and Tata Bluescope erected the roof.
Flaws unaddressed
But while failings of the building are being questioned, what remains unaddressed are the flaws in the system and its processes.
The predictably discomfiting frequency of such accidents must put into focus not merely the outcome of the exercise but the process behind the product as well. Further, in the event of any shortcomings, accountability must be pinned down, followed by action against those responsible.
The malaise often starts with the process of selection of the consultant. Unfortunately, tenders for such projects are often doctored to favour a specific agency. This has a bearing on competition and quality. Occasionally, allocated projects are subcontracted by the appointed consultant. This practice has gained frequency ever since tender values have increased manifold and global firms allowed to bid. Operating on wafer-thin margins, these international consultancies often operate through local professionals whose abilities may not be commensurate with the standards expected.
The penchant for “world class” infrastructure and international consultants has rarely translated into the expected results. PTW Architects, an Australian consultancy famed for the Water Cube at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was appointed to design various stadiums for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. While the same firm created a globally lauded design in China, there was little to show for its efforts in India. The controversial redevelopment of East Kidwai Nagar in Delhi is also the result of an international tender with the design attributed to Chapman Taylor, a design firm based in London.
Similarly, the execution process may also be flawed. And compensation, when announced in such cases, is usually arbitrary and mirrors political considerations.
A paltry amount of Rs 20 lakh was announced for the family of the victim in the Delhi airport accident. In the much-publicised case of floor slabs collapsing in the Gurugram condominium Chintels Paradiso, over two years after the incident no financial compensation has been finalised for those whose flats were declared unsafe. Instead, the builder has been asked to pay rent for providing alternative accommodation for those affected even as the inquiry lingers on. While the courts have been silent on a monetary resolution of the imbroglio, the offer of alternative accommodation on part of the builder is not acceptable to many of those affected.
Contrast this with an almost simultaneous and similar case in Miami in the United States where a portion of a 12-storey beachfront tower, Champlain Towers South, collapsed on June 24, 2021, killing 98 people. Less than a year after the incident, a $1.2 billion settlement was approved by a court in favour of those affected.
Many infrastructure projects built in recent times have drawn mixed feedback. Underpasses have seasonally flooded, bridges and canopies have occasionally collapsed and highways eroded in the monsoon. Lest this observation be lent a political overtone, it may be noted that there was little or no initiative for infrastructure growth under the previous regime through its rule in the decades after the British left India. The annual rate of road construction was higher under colonial rule than in the years after Independence.
While the current push for infrastructure growth is appreciable, it must be subjected to enhanced checks and balances and a stringent intolerance for malpractice of any manner.
The writer is an architect in independent practice. A graduate from Columbia University in New York City, he designs, writes and teaches in New Delhi.
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