We Chennaiities are so inured to a certain piece of news, that it’s become a subject of amusement and humour. It’s the absurd regularity with which the ceilings at our airport at Meenambakkam, fall off.
It was on 13th May, 2013 when the papers first reported, “Portion of false ceiling falls off at Chennai’s new domestic airport.” The reason was heavy rains. Then on 20th August, 2013 the papers reported: “False ceiling collapses again at Chennai International Terminal”.
Image courtesy: www.skyscrapercity.com
This is when the media started to question the shoddy maintenance and poor quality of materials used. False ceilings started falling off in different zones of the airport premises: once at the security counter, then near a check-in counter, and window panes were getting broken by the mildest breeze.
The authorities soon ran out of causes for these mishaps, and they kept happening by the dozens. Almost every fortnight the day’s newspapers would carry the news: False ceiling or window panes broken again.
These collapses made to the news at least forty times and the last mention was on 6th April, 2015. Airport Authority of India (AAI) which manages the airport, must get an award for making a mockery in the name of modernization. If this is not a scam, then what is?
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All this reminds me of a joke from the movie “Armageddon” when the funny man Rockhound tells Bruce Harris, as the countdown for take-off of spaceship begins: “You know we’re sitting on four million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good, doesn’t it!”
AAI can bungle once or even half a dozen times in twenty odd months, but to repeatedly mess up without an end, shows an evil genius at work, who has pushed his luck too far.
Image courtesy: www.wikimedia.org
The famous Tamil comedian Vivek , when emerging from the airport,in a movie, befuddles the hero by saying, “These false ceilings keep falling, helmets are required more at the airport than on the streets.” I couldn’t agree more.
If this is modernization then it must be the Indian way; inept government organizations fattening themselves at the expense of safety of the passengers and no one to bring them to account.
