Civic chief orders probe into elevator crash at Byculla museum

On April 28, 63-year-old Dr Arnavaz Havewalla was seriously injured after a lift at the museum crashed, following which she was admitted to Masina hospital.

Civic chief Ajoy Mehta on Friday initiated a departmental probe into the death of a well-known dentist owing to injuries sustained in an elevator collapse at the Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Byculla in end-April.

MCivic chief Ajoy Mehta on Friday initiated a departmental probe into the death of a well-known dentist owing to injuries sustained in an elevator collapse at the Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Byculla in end-April.

On April 28, 63-year-old Dr Arnavaz Havewalla was seriously injured after a lift at the museum crashed, following which she was admitted to Masina hospital. Havewalla suffered a severe pelvic fracture and injuries to her heels. Havewalla succumbed to her injuries on Thursday. The more than a century old museum is run by a committee where the mayor is the museum chairman, the city commissioner is co-chairman and director Tasneem Zakaria Mehta is an equal partner.

Vishwananth Mahadeshwar, Mumbai mayor, said he was not told about the incident and that the incident was a serious lapse. Mahadeshwar told HT, “It’s a tragic incident and we have taken note of it. The museum staff got her admitted to a private hospital, instead of a government-run hospital. All this will be probed. I have written to the civic chief to probe this incident, which happened owing to the negligence of officials concerned.”

Mahadeshwar, in his letter, has also pointed out that the procedure to bring the museum authority under the purview of civic administration should be initiated.

A senior civic official said an administrative committee will take over the running of the museum after the lease for caretaker ends. He said, “In 2003, a tri-partite agreement was signed between the BMC, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage and Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation to revive and manage the museum on a caretaker basis for 15 years. The lease is set to end this October, after which a committee involving administrative officers and experts will take over.”

Corporators Rais Shaikh, Rakhi Jadhav and Ravi Raja have also demanded to change the authoritarian powers of the museum. Shaikh said, “I have demanded the BMC urgently hire a top bureaucrat and make him in charge of running the museum.”

This comes amid the growing tussle between the BMC and museum director Zakaria-Mehta going on over the past few months, wherein the civic body wants to take complete control over the museum’s activities.

Despite several attempts, Tasneem Mehta did not respond to HT’s messages.