Tharoor and Scindia clash over Delhi airport chaos

A war of words erupted between Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia over the recent chaos at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) caused by fog and subsequent flight delays. Tharoor questioned the government’s preparedness to deal with the flight delays which prompted Scindia to lash out at him with the “arm-chair critic” jibe. While the Congress MP called the chaos and flight delays as a “Modi government-made disaster”, the minister claimed Tharoor is “lost in his esoteric world of thesaurus”. Scindia posted a series of tweets on the microblogging site X (formerly Twitter) that countered Tharoor’s research, claiming it amounted to “data mining of selective press articles from the internet.”

Tharoor highlighted the plight of passengers stranded for up to 12 hours, forced to eat meals on the tarmac, amid the “sorry state of affairs of India’s aviation sector.’’ He also cited several media reports and targeted the government for not ensuring pilots flying to Delhi were trained for landings on CAT III-B runways, equipped for low-visibility conditions.

The Congress leader alleged that the chaos at the Delhi airport is a result of the “neglect and incompetence” of the Ministry of Civil Aviation which has failed to put in place modern facilities similar to other international airports of the world.

The Civil Aviation Ministry has also not made sure trained pilots are deployed during winter months who can land in lower visibility, he claimed.

“Delhi Airport has been in chaos recently. The young professional wanting to go home for Makar Sankranti. The Army officer was excited to visit his ancestral village for Lohri. The anxious son trying to get home to take care of an unwell parent. Thousands of peoples’ lives and schedules have been disrupted by a regular, predictable, foggy winter day. It’s a Modi Government-made disaster, a result of the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s neglect and incompetence,” Tharoor said in one of the posts.

Citing news reports, Shashi Tharoor said that Delhi’s IGI Airport got a brand-new CAT III-B (Category III)-compliant runway, an advanced landing system that allows pilots to land even when there is fog or the visibility is as low as 50 metres, in 2008 at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore.

“In total, Delhi has four runways, two of which are CAT III-B compliant. In all its wisdom, the Modi government began maintenance work on one of the two CAT III-B runways in September 2023, fully aware that it would not be ready for the winter!

“Even worse, a crane from some other construction work was blocking operation of CAT III-B on one runway, even after repairs were complete. Delhi Airport flagged this over 10 days ago, on January 5, but no action was taken,” he said.

“In addition to runways, pilots must be trained to land with CAT III-B instrument landing. The Ministry of Civil Aviation and the DGCA failed to ensure that airlines have sufficiently trained pilots. Further, it did not even ensure that pilots planning to fly to Delhi during fog conditions were CAT III-B trained. Therefore, multiple flights were diverted to cities like Jaipur and Ahmedabad,” Shashi Tharoor said.

Responding to the Congress MP, Scindia also used an equal number of posts to give a detailed point-by-point rebuttal.

“Here are some actual facts for arm-chair critic Shashi Tharoor and the Congress IT Cell that might help tackle their lack of depth in understanding of technical sectors like civil aviation,” he said.

“Runway maintenance work is a critical safety element for aviation operations, and any compromise with runway conditions directly jeopardizes passenger safety. As a result, the maintenance was taken on top priority to be completed by 15th December before the onset of the fog season. However, due to pollution incidents and enforcement of GRAP-IV in Delhi, the recarpeting got delayed, resulting in a delay of one month in its commissioning. The revamped RWY is getting operational this week,” Scindia claimed.

He said the crane was being used for the construction of another critical infrastructure project - the Dwarka Expressway.

However, in view of its impact on the runway, it has now been decided that the crane operation shall be allowed only on non-fog days, he said.

“On sufficiently trained pilots, your claim is incorrect and baseless, as usual! As compared to only 2416 CAT II/CAT III trained pilots in 2014, today we have 6191 CAT II/CAT III trained pilots which is a jump of 2.5 times in the last 9 years. Further, in preparation for the fog season of 2023-24, due to our efforts, the number of CAT II/CAT III trained pilots have grown by 16% in the last three months alone from 5332 to 6191.

“Also, the DGCA mandates airlines to deploy CAT IIIB compliant aircraft only with qualified crew during the winter season. Any violations are strictly dealt with by the regulator, DGCA. For instance, show cause notices were issued to Spicejet and Air India.” he said while dismissing allegations levelled by Shashi Tharoor.