BHOPAL: Two staffers of a private firm working with Bhopal Municipal Corporation died while measuring the depth of a manhole of a sewage line in Laukhedi area here on Monday, police said. The incident took place under Gandhi Nagar police station of the city. Urban development and housing minister Bhupendra Singh Thakur has ordered an inquiry into the incident.
Police station in-charge Arun Sharma told media that Dipak Kumar Singh (28), an engineer hailing from Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh, and his assistant Bharat Singh (22) of Jhabua district had descended into the manhole to measure its depth. The deceased were workers of Ankita Construction Company of Gujarat, which had bagged a contract in 2018 from BMC for laying a sewage line.
On Monday noon, onlookers alerted police about a man lying unresponsive inside an opened manhole. A police team along with the staff of BMC rushed and pulled out the man - later identified as Dipak - from a depth of 20 feet. They then searched the manhole after seeing two slippers close by and found another man dead inside. He was identified as Bharat.
Sharma said the exact cause of death would be known after the post mortem report is received. However, sources said the two may have died of asphyxiation inside the manhole.
The minister has asked the divisional commissioner Bhopal, to direct the BMC commissioner to conduct an inquiry into the incident and submit a report within 24 hours.
