VVMC employee dies after falling in filtration plant tank

Employee of Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation dies after drowning in water tank at filtration plant. Police investigating incident.

MUMBAI: An employee of the Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation (VVMC) died on Wednesday by drowning in a tank of a water filtration plant. The police have registered an accidental death report.

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According to the police, the incident occurred in the early hours of Wednesday after the victim, Kailash Raut, switched on the drinking water connection at the open water tank in the Phoolpada area in Virar East.

Rajendra Kamble, senior police inspector of Virar police station, said that when Raut’s colleague reached the spot at 9am and began calling him for breakfast, they noticed that he was not answering his phone.

The colleagues went up to the tank and saw his slippers on the edge and suspected that either Raut had fallen in the tank or died by suicide. They then called the fire brigade officers, who fished out his body at 11am.

The officers said that Raut, who worked as the water tank operator, was a resident of Agashi locality near Arnala beach in Virar West. He is survived by his wife and son and has been working at the water department for the past 22 years.

Water is supplied to the entire Vasai region from the water tank, which is part of the filtration plant at a dam.

“We are now investigating the sequence of incident to find out how Raut fell inside the tank,” said Kamble. The police are now recording statements from Raut’s family and colleagues to find out about his mental status.