Civic body considers geo-tagging manhole covers to avert mishap

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner, Iqbal Singh Chahal, assured the Bombay high court on Wednesday that the civic body would ensure that the city is rid of open manholes

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner, Iqbal Singh Chahal, assured the Bombay high court on Wednesday that the civic body would ensure that the city is rid of open manholes. Chahal said BMC was exploring the option of geo-tagging manhole covers so that the missing ones are promptly replaced for the safety of citizens.

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The commissioner offered the assurance in an affidavit in response to a contempt petition, which had alleged that the civic body was not taking sufficient steps to avert mishaps when manhole and utility chamber covers are stolen or damaged.

The court had earlier sought to know if any officer could be held accountable in case of such an occurrence. It said the road engineer of each ward was entrusted with the duty of informing the concerned department regarding any damaged or missing manhole covers. It was also up to the respective officer to ensure open manholes are temporarily barricaded and replaced within a stipulated period.

Open manholes have claimed many lives in the past – most recently, a 62-year-old woman from Virar reportedly died after she accidentally fell into an open chamber on November 7, 2022. In 2017, the city lost renowned doctor Deepak Amrapurkar, after he fell into an open manhole near Elphinstone Road which was inundated after a spell of heavy rain. Subsequent investigation had revealed that someone had removed the manhole cover to hasten the pace of water draining out of a waterlogged street.

The division bench of acting chief justice S V Gangapurwala and justice S V Marne, while hearing the contempt petition filed by Ruju Thakker, a lawyer, was informed that the petition sought initiation of a suo motu PIL by the HC as the civic authorities had failed to implement the February and April 2018 orders which had directed repairing of potholes along all arterial roads in the city and devising a uniform mechanism to redress citizens’ grievances related to bad roads and potholes.

Terming manholes as death traps, the HC in the earlier hearing had warned the BMC officers responsible for mishaps and had sought a reply from the commissioner.

Elaborating the steps taken to address the issue, Chahal in his affidavit stated that supervisors are now deputed to monitor manholes, open drains, sewers and ventilation shafts, while other field staff are available at ward offices to field complaints. Ward officers also carried out daily inspections, he assured. The commissioner also said that citizens were routinely warned about barricaded open manholes.

Additionally, the affidavit stated that out of the 2050 kilometres of roads in its purview, concretisation of 990 kilometers was complete, while work on 265 kilometers was ongoing and 110 kilometers of road was resurfaced. Tenders for concretisation of 397 kilometers was done; it would be taken up in the next phase.

On the issue of potholes, Chahal said that rapid hardening concrete and geo-polymer concrete were being used on trial to fill the potholes. He added that before starting the concretisation work, the civic body will fix QR codes on barricades so that anyone can access the information about the details of the project.

The affidavit concluded stating instructions have been issued by to each ward, to prepare a road-wise inventory of manholes, chambers (rectangular, circular or otherwise) by mentioning their ownership. The inventory will mention whether the respective utilities belong to departments of the BMC or to external agencies like BEST, Adani Electricity, MTNL, Reliance Jio or MGL, so that specific agencies can be contacted to avoid incidents of unattended and unmonitored manholes.