Cover all manholes, BMC tells officials ahead of inspection

BMC commissioner, Iqbal Chahal, has instructed officials to ensure all manholes in Mumbai are well covered ahead of a joint visit by advocates and assistant commissioners. The visit is scheduled to start from August 21.

Mumbai: Ahead of joint visit to be conducted by Bombay high court-appointed advocates and assistant commissioners of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Iqbal Chahal, BMC commissioner, on Monday instructed the officials to ensure that all manholes are well covered.

HT Image

The joint visit is scheduled to start from August 21. The BMC in a press statement said that the officials are instructed to inspect all manholes and ensure that the covers are intact.

The BMC said that the commissioner has ordered the officials to finish the inspection at their level by August 20 and submit a report before 10am on August 21.

“Officers, engineers and employees should be appointed at the level of all department offices immediately from today. They should be given the responsibility of checking the manhole in a certain number. Ensure that all manholes are closed,” said the press statement.

The BMC has also instructed its officials to prepare a separate ward-wise list of all manholes where protective grilles have been installed. The BMC has said there are 6,308 manholes in flood-prone areas where grilles are installed.

The high court on Friday had said it will appoint advocates to visit each civic ward in the city along with the assistant commissioners of the BMC to check if protective grilles have been installed on all manholes.

During the hearing attended by all six civic chiefs from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, including Iqbal Singh Chahal, and Dr Sanjay Mukherjee, MMRDA chief, the division bench of chief justice DK Upadhyay and justice Arif Doctor said if a pedestrian or a cyclist falls and dies due to poor condition of the road or an open manhole, it cannot be termed an accident, it is a man-made disaster.