Some of India’s new infrastructure projects are crumbling, laying bare Modi’s ‘electoral gimmick’

A slew of infrastructure disasters has raised safety concerns about the prime minister’s building spree aimed at boosting the nation’s development

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Rescuers work at the collapsed terminal roof of New Delhi’s international airport on June 28. Photo: AFP

Published: 3:00pm, 29 Jun 2024

The deadly roof collapse at India’s busiest airport is the latest in a string of recent infrastructure disasters in the country, raising safety questions as Prime Minister Narendra Modi spends billions of dollars to improve transport across the country.

Officials at Delhi’s airport cancelled operations at Terminal 1 after an outdoor metal canopy collapsed during torrential rainfall on Friday. Multiple cars were crushed outside the airport, which was recently renovated, killing one person and injuring eight, according to the authorities. The area recorded its heaviest one-day June rainfall in 88 years that day.

Several hundred kilometres east, in the state of Bihar, four bridges recently collapsed and a structure at an airport in central India caved in. With the start of the monsoon season, waterlogging is now the norm in many cities. In Ayodhya, the roof of a massive temple inaugurated by Modi earlier this year has been leaking, and flooding has inundated newly built roads, according to local reports.

The issues cast a harsh spotlight on Modi’s building spree, which officials are leaning on to boost development in the world’s fastest-growing major economy. According to Bloomberg Economics, 44.4 trillion rupees (US$532 billion) worth of new infrastructure will become operational over the next two years. That figure equals the value of all projects built in the last 11 years.

Modi has presided over ribbon-cutting ceremonies at many of them. Modernising infrastructure was a key part of his pitch to voters during this year’s national election, when he won a third term as prime minister. Over the last decade, his government says it’s built 80 new airports, upgraded railways and expanded highways by many thousands of kilometres.

Niranjan Sahoo, a senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, said Friday’s disaster at Terminal 1 raises fresh questions about the quality of India’s infrastructure. “It puts the country, which aspires to be a global power, in a very poor light,” he said, calling many of the projects an “electoral gimmick.”