The Airport tunnel was temporarily closed for vehicular movement on Monday after a vehicle caught fire at the merging point of the tunnel and the main Dwarka Expressway tunnel (from Delhi airport side towards Yashobhoomi), the national highways authority of India (NHAI) said in a post on X. Traffic movement on the main Dwarka Expressway tunnel was later restored on both carriageways, the NHAI said.
While the NHAI’s statement said that the fire broke out in a car, the Delhi Police said that an ambulance of Gurugram Civil Hospital caught fire. The fire was doused and no loss of life or injury was reported, the police said.
According to the NHAI’s statement, a fire incident was reported at around 8.10 pm. As per standard operating procedures, the fire was promptly brought under control using available safety measures within the tunnel.
“For effective smoke extraction, the Airport tunnel has been temporarily closed, while traffic movement on the main Dwarka Expressway tunnel has been restored on both sides. Commuters are advised to follow traffic advisories and cooperate with authorities,” the statement said.
Deputy commissioner of police (southwest) Amit Goel said that the Kapashera police station received a call at 8.29 pm regarding a fire on Bharthal Road. Upon reaching the scene, police personnel found that the fire was in an ambulance. The ambulance driver, Sunil,20, a resident of Gurugram, was found at the spot.
“Sunil told the personnel that the ambulance belonged to Civil Hospital Gurugram. He was driving the ambulance back to his hospital after dropping a patient at Safdarjung hospital, when suddenly the vehicle caught fire. The fire was doused. Prime facie, it appears that excessive engine heat caused the fire. However, the exact cause can be established only after proper mechanical inspection of the vehicle,” said a senior police officer aware of the incident.
Delhi Fire Services (DFS) officials said that three fire tenders were rushed to the scene to extinguish the blaze and prevent it from spreading further.
DCP (traffic) Shobhit Saxena also confirmed that the Airport tunnel was temporarily closed due to the fire incident and traffic personnel were deployed to regulate the flow of traffic on the alternate routes.