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Power cut leaves airport in the dark
Power failure disrupted services at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday. At around 12.45 pm on Sunday, the power went off at the international terminal, affecting normal operations.
Power failure disrupted services at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday. At around 12.45 pm on Sunday, the power went off at the international terminal, affecting normal operations.
The power supply kept fluctuating and tripped thrice within 10 minutes. Though the back-up power system at the airport kicked into action, it took some time for normal supply to return.
“There was almost no power supply for ten minutes at the international terminal and though operations didn’t stop, it did get affected,” said a senior official of an international airline who didn’t wish to be named. “The computer system was functioning erratically due to power fluctuations. This slowed down operations.”
Critical operations at the airside and the air traffic control were not affected.
Though the back-up power could manage essential services, normal operations were affected and passengers faced the brunt of the problem.
Not enough lights were functioning and the conveyor belts stopped working.
“My flight landed at the airport at 11.30 but I got my baggage only by 1.15 pm as none of the conveyor belts were working,” said Babita Pandey (20), an MBA student who was coming from Dubai.
“There was darkness inside the terminal as there was no power supply. Though there were not enough flights at that time, crowd formed around the conveyor belts,” she said.
The private airport operator Delhi International Airport Ltd. (DIAL) refused to comment on the incident.
DIAL promises to build a world-class airport by 2010, but blackouts and power disruptions have become a way of life.
The airport is supposed to receive uninterrupted power supply from BSES Rajdhani and has a generator-based back-up. It is, however, not enough to run smooth operations at an international airport handling more than 350 flights every day.
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