It is an unusual threat that passengers and staff in Chennai international airport face. While in other airports if the biggest concern is terror threats, in Chennai it is falling glass panels! The international airport has a dubious track record of glass panels falling down. In fact in the past four years there have been a whooping 66 incidents of glass sheets coming down, the latest being on Friday morning.

But the worst part is-no one seems to have any idea why this is happening again and again.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) has said in its reply to a notice from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that glass panels were falling not because of structural issues but due to impurities in the glass and the issue was merely media hype.

The reply said that passengers were not injured in any of the incidents.

The response came following a notice issued by NHRC after a Supreme Court lawyer filed a complaint against frequent crash of glass panels at the airport.

The menace started four years ago after the airport was renovated at a cost of Rs 2200 crore. It was aimed at increasing the airport's annual handling capacity to 16 million domestic passengers and 7 million international passengers.

In April Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju had told the parliament that action taken against the firm which was involved in the project, though he did not disclose its name.