KDMC offers ₹6L to kin of boy who died after falling into open manhole

The Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation (KDMC) on Tuesday assured the Bombay high court that it would pay a compensation amount of ₹6 lakh within two weeks to the parents of a 13-year-old boy who died in September after falling into an open manhole

MUMBAI: The Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation (KDMC) on Tuesday assured the Bombay high court that it would pay a compensation amount of ₹6 lakh within two weeks to the parents of a 13-year-old boy who died in September after falling into an open manhole. It added that an inquiry would be held and the officers responsible would be held accountable.

Gavel and law books (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A division bench of Justice Revati Mohite Dere and Justice Sandesh D Patil was hearing a contempt petition, filed by advocate Ruju Thakker, in connection with a 2013 suo motu proceeding after five deaths were reported in two months within the limits of the BMC due to bad road conditions.

The suo motu PIL was taken up after a then high court judge, Justice G S Patel, wrote a letter highlighting the “pathetic condition” of roads in and around Mumbai. More than a decade later, the court noted that despite “repeated judicial interventions since 2015”, the same issues reappeared every monsoon, pointing to the lack of sustained compliance and the negligence of public authorities.

The PIL has since exposed systemic failures across civic bodies, state agencies, and contractors responsible for road upkeep. The court observed that although various government guidelines and complaint systems exist on paper, citizens continue to suffer injuries and even death due to potholes.

Thakker on Tuesday raised the issue of Ayush Kadam’s death—the minor was swept away in an open drain in Dombivli on September 28 and his body was found by the KDMC an hour later after a search was launched. The court ordered KDMC to cover the open manholes in its jurisdiction immediately and submit a report to the court within six weeks.

In her plea, Thakker, citing media reports, also drew attention to 18 alleged pothole-related deaths along Thane’s Ghodbunder Road between January and October 2025. She stated that the road, which connects the Eastern and Western Express Highways, had deteriorated sharply due to resurfacing delays and patchwork repairs that repeatedly failed.

According to her, the overlapping infrastructure work and repairs carried out by multiple government bodies without coordination had led to congestion, unsafe diversions and heightened accident risks, and the recurring potholes and uncoordinated development works along Ghodbunder Road had resulted in a spate of fatal and life-altering accidents.

The advocate’s application referred to specific cases reported in the media. One was that of a 49-year-old woman who died after the ambulance transporting her was trapped for hours in gridlocked traffic caused by roadwork, and another was the case of motorist Manish Thakkar, who allegedly sustained a serious spinal injury after falling on an uneven road surface in April.

While the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has consistently denied the allegations, the court directed it and the state government to file their replies by December 15. It also sought formal responses from state and civic authorities such as the Public Works Department (PWD), Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and the traffic police to Thakker’s allegation.

Earlier, in October, the court had ordered all civic bodies and other planning authorities, including Mhada, MSRDC, CIDCO and others, to compensate the families of those who died in pothole-related accidents. Each family had to be paid ₹6 lakh within eight weeks, while injured victims were to receive between ₹50,000 and ₹2.5 lakh, depending on the severity of the injuries.