Mumbai News: Bombay High Court Pulls Up BMC For Not Covering Manholes With Grills

The Bombay high court on Wednesday expressed displeasure over non compliance of its 2018 order wherein the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations (BMC) was asked to put protective grills over all the open manholes to avoid unfortunate incidents of persons falling and losing life. 

“Five years have gone by, yet less than 10 percent of manholes have protective grills,” observed Justice Jamdar adding that the same was not in consonance with its 2018 order with regard to covering of all the open manholes. 

BMC's willful non-compliance on fixing manholes

The HC was hearing a contempt petition filed by advocate Ruju Thakker regarding willful non-compliance by BMC with the 2018 court judgement in a PIL on fixing roads. The HC, in February and April 2018 directed the repair of potholes along all arterial roads in Mumbai and devised a uniform mechanism to redress citizens’ grievances related to bad roads and potholes.

The court noted that the HC, in 2018, had specifically directed the civic body to develop some mechanism to ensure that  manholes on city roads and pavements are not left open. The court had also suggested that preventive grills be installed in manholes so that if anybody falls through an open manhole, the grill underneath will stop the fall. 

After going through the BMC’s affidavit, the HC noted that of the 74,682 manholes in the copy, protective grills have been put only on 1,902 manholes, which are situated in flood prone areas. Anil Sakhare, counsel for the BMC, said that they have put up grills on manholes in flood-prone areas.

The court, however, opined that grills should be installed in all manholes to avoid incidents of a person or animal falling through an open manhole. 

“According to us it is not in consonance with 2018 judgements which had issued directions for safety of residents in regard to manholes,” the bench said in a detailed order. It added: “Prima facie we find no reason as to why the same protective measure is not extended to all manholes so no such incident takes place. As it is quite likely that an area not supposed to be flooded for some reason faces this issue.” 

Open manhole accident in the past

The BMC counsel sought time to discuss the issue with the departments concerned and inform the HC. The issue of open manholes came to public notice after senior gastroenterologist Dr Deepak Amrapurkar fell through an open manhole while walking down a flooded road in south Mumbai and drowned in August 2017.

During the last hearing, the HC had asked whether it was feasible for the BMC to set up a dedicated task force. Sakhare informed the HC that they have a disaster management committee which will work as a coordinating cell. 

The HC has kept the matter for hearing on June 19.