HC calls open manholes death traps, gives BMC one week to cover them up

The Bombay high court on Tuesday said open manholes are death traps and people may unknowingly fall in them and hurt themselves grievously, even if they do not die

The Bombay high court on Tuesday said open manholes are death traps and people may unknowingly fall in them and hurt themselves grievously, even if they do not die. It asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to close the manholes on the Eastern Express Highway within a week.

Navi Mumbai -November 21-An Open Manhole at Sec-21 Khraghar, Navi Mumbai- 21 Wednesday November , 2012 Photos / Bachchan Kumar (Bachchan Kumar)

It has also directed all civic bodies in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region to file affidavits before December 1 detailing the number of potholes within their jurisdiction and how many of them had been fixed.

A division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Abhay Ahuja, while hearing a contempt petition filed by advocate Ruju Thakker, was informed that a 68-year-old woman recently died after falling in an open manhole at Virar.

Thakker said there were a large number of open manholes on the Eastern Express Highway between Mulund and Ghatkopar and Virar-like incidents were waiting to happen.

The bench then sought to know from senior advocate Anil Sakhare, representing the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), whether this was true and said it expected the civic body to give a statement by Monday, November 28, informing it that the manholes had been covered up.

Thakker further said that though the HC had directed the civic bodies, especially the BMC, to file affidavits on the number of potholes and how many of them had been filled up, nothing had been done so far.

The bench asked Sakhare why the pothole issue was not taken care of despite BMC commissioner Iqbal Chahal assuring the court of addressing the problem. “We do not want you to ask for extensions. We have read in the newspapers that some tenders have been cancelled,” the bench said, and posted the hearing on December 1.