Chennai
airport's new terminal building has been dogged with problems ever
since the new terminal was opened on January 31st
2013. I had an occasion to pass through the spanking new terminal in
April 2013 and again in July 2013 on my way and back from Singapore.
On both these occasions, I had totally different experiences, some
pleasant, some not so pleasant. I have already written, two blog
posts about the new Chennai airport, which readers can find on this
link
as well as on this
link. I had thought then, that as things get normalised, the airport
woes would be streamlined and there may not be another occasion to
write about the airport again. But I was sadly mistaken. The troubles
at the airport continue and even pose a danger to the passengers.
Let us
first see the course of events. On 18th
April 2013 Leaking air-conditioning ducts were first reported. This
was followed by complaints from passengers about pigeon droppings
inside new domestic terminal. On 3rd
May, over 10 glass panels in the terminal were found cracked, which
were later replaced and finally on 13th
May, false ceiling panels inside new domestic terminal fell down.
Now in
the latest mishap, twenty-three panels of the false ceiling in the
departure hall of the new domestic terminal, came crashing down on
Saturday-Sunday night, 11th
August 2013 at about 12.50 AM. This is the second such incident in
the four months, as there was similar instance on 3rd
May near the security hold area of the terminal, since the new
terminal was commissioned. The false ceiling panels, made from gypsum
and installed behind the Air India, IndiGo and GoAir check-in
counters, in the east wing crashed down. Fortunately no domestic
flight operations were underway at that time and hence there were no
injuries. Airport maintenance staff cleared the debris by 3 AM.
As in
the two previous instances, the airport management has issued
statements explaining technical reasons for the collapse. It now says
that due to heavy condensation, the gypsum board located near the air
conditioning diffusers had absorbed a lot of moisture and the panels
had come loose of the screws and fallen. An airport official added:
added. “We didn’t quite foresee this problem as false ceilings
near diffusers are common. This incident may have occurred because
the building is made of glass and steel which emit a lot of heat and
induce such a problem.”
Airports
Authority of India (AAI) officials give a clean chit to the quality
of the false ceiling material manufactured and supplied by Armstrong
Ceilings India Ltd. The airport officials are clearly puzzled as can
be seen from their statements. They say: “We, certainly, don’t
have defective material; it is of good quality. We are now trying to
find out how to reduce the condensation process. The problem is also
not with the temperature of about 22-24 degree centigrade that we
maintain inside the terminal.”
Airport
director meanwhile has issued a statement that says: “We will soon
begin repair works and replace these false ceiling areas with
lighter, non-moisture absorbing material such as aluminum metal
strips or calcium silicate ceiling board. We have already identified
the vulnerable spots. This will be done for both the new domestic and
international terminal as we don’t want to face such problems in
the international terminal.”
All
these explanations and counter explanations really show that airport
staff really does not know what is happening? Chennai is known to
have heavy moisture content in the air as it is a port city with hot
and humid weather. One does not know whether all these factors were
taken into consideration or not when the design for the new terminal
building was made.
As
airport authorities struggle to find solutions for airport building
problems, passengers continue to face daily, stinky toilets and water
leaking from the ceiling.
14th
August 2013
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