The NHRC has issued notices to Union Ministry of Civil Aviation and Airports Authority of India on a complaint that the Chennai Airport despite being modernised in 2013 has witnessed 61 incidents of glass fall in recent times, endangering safety of travellers.
"Providing safety and security to passengers is one of the cardinal duties of airline operators and also of airport authorities. Further, the quality and standard of construction of airports should be as per required safety standards. It is really surprising that despite 61 incidents of glass fall, the authorities appear to have not paid heed to the safety concerns of people. If the allegations levelled are true, the matter needs to be inquired into," observed Justice D Murugesan, Member, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
This decision comes after SK Saamy, an advocate in the Supreme Court, had filed a petition on this matter to Justice D Murgesan, a National Human Rights Commission member.
In his petition, he wrote, “Being a frequent flyer I use this airport several times in a year. There had been many suspicions about the quality and sustainability of the work carried out in Chennai airport terminals.”
He had also stated in the petition that in 2013 itself when the airport was inaugurated, there have been more than three such incidents in first six months. In 2014, in one of the incidents, one duty officer from the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and three other private airline employers had got injured due to a glass falling incident.
Talking about a recent similar incident on March 30, 2016, he wrote that the glass fall incident happened twice on this particular day.
He had stated in the petition that these incidents are a serious violation of human rights.