The death of a woman from Mumbai sheds light on the manhole cover tragedies and their background

Mumbai:

The death of 45-year-old Vimal Anil Gaikwad, who fell into a manhole cover on a flooded street last night, has brought headlines to Mumbai's manhole cover tragedies and the number of lives they have claimed in recent years.

This year alone, seven people have died in sewerage disasters in Maximum City. Last month, worker Sunil Wakode opened a BMC sewerage well in Borivali West to clean the drains without permission from the civic body. He later died. Earlier, in April, three people – Raghu Solanki, Javed Shaikh and his brother Aqib Shaikh – fell into a sewerage well in Malad East. Raghu had fallen into the nine-metre-deep well and brothers Javed and Aqib tried to rescue him. Raghu and Javed died in the incident.

In March, three people were killed in a sewer tragedy. Workers Suraj Kevat, Bikas Kevat and Ramlagan Kevat were cleaning the sewer in Malad West when they fell into the manhole and died.

In 2017, gastroenterologist Dr Deepak Amrapurkar died after falling into a manhole cover near Prabhadevi during heavy rain. His body was found two days later near Worli. The following year, 18-year-old Arjun died after falling into a manhole cover in Malad.

Sheetal Bhanushali, a 35-year-old housewife and mother of two, died when she fell into a manhole cover in Ghatkopar during heavy rain. Her body was later found near Haji Ali.

In recent years, Mumbai has also seen a sharp rise in cases of manhole cover theft. Last year, 791 cases of manhole cover theft were registered. The previous year, the number of such cases was 836, the highest in four years. This is a sharp rise compared to the cases registered in the previous three years – 564 in 2021, 458 in 2020 and 386 in 2019.

Manhole covers are made of cast iron and fetch a good price on the black market – Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 – making them a favourite target of petty thieves.

After the death of Dr. Deepak Amrapurkar, the Bombay High Court recommended that BMC install protective grilles on the manhole covers to protect them from thieves.

At a hearing last year, the court observed that the grilles had been installed at only 1,908 of the total 74,682 manholes in the city. The court had then held BMC accountable for the delayed progress.