On August 29, when heavy rains lashed the city, Mumbai lost five lives including doctor Deepak Amrapurkar, who was a renowned gastroenterologist. His death was indeed a tragic one, as he was only 10 minutes away from his home but he couldn't make it. The reason being the manhole. He went missing on August 29 and his dead body was found on August 31 near the Worli sea shore. Later, it was revealed, that the doctor was sucked into the manhole where he breathed his last.
Mumbai Live, who has been thoroughly investigating Mumbai rains, stumbled upon an information which was shattering one. Apparently, according to the retired civic officials, the open manhole which sucked doctor in was covered with fibre lid. This type of lids are light in weight and cannot withstand floods.
Where are cast iron manhole covers?
Usually, when it rains, civic workers uncover the manhole to drain out excess water and place a red flag with a stick to prevent any untoward incident. The cast iron manhole cover is sturdy and cannot be removed other than the civic worker. According to the BMC officials, cast iron covers are sold to scrap dealers by drug dealers or beggars owing to its resale value. because of this, many manholes are uncovered in the city posing threat to the residents. Hence, the BMC decided to cover the manholes by fibre plastic covers which are light in weight in comparison to the cast iron manhole covers.
Some of the retired civic workers pointed out that the doctor Amrapurkar might have fallen into manhole due to the weak fibre plastic cover. But at the same time, they also took the BMC’s side saying that the latter is not responsible.
On the fateful day of Tuesday, when it rained heavily, the BMC had started 110 pumps to drain out the water. On a daily basis, 1700 mm water is drained out but on the day of heavy rainfall, 3756 mm water was drained out, pointed out BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta in a press conference in his defence. People have raised a question as to if civic workers were manning the manholes on Tuesday, why there was no civic worker present near M S Katkar area where doctor fell into the open manhole.
After the tragic death of doctor Amrapurkar, The Federation Of Retail Traders Welfare Association filed a PIL before the division bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and NM Jamdar asking to take action against the BMC and also asked for the compensation of INR 50 lakh. The BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta has taken cognizance of the PIL and has formed a committee which will be led by additional commissioner Vijay Singhal. The committee will submit the report in 15 days after inspecting the manholes near M S Matkar road, where doctor lost his life.