Mumbai: Tanmaya Nanda (former journalist), a resident of Veera Desai Road in Andheri (West), had a narrow escape after he slipped into an open manhole on Tuesday morning. According to Nanda, he left his home at around 9 am to buy some milk for his daughter as he was running out of stock and no nearby shops were undertaking home delivery due to the continuous heavy rain.
Result: He decided to wade through the submerged footpath, so that he could access the only pharmacy shop which was open. However, only after walking a few steps, he fell into the manhole on the footpath, which had no sign boards or barricades around it, which would warn passers-by of the lurking danger.
He said, "Incidentally, there was another manhole two feet away, just next to the one I fell into. But since there was a log of wood indicating the possibility of a manhole, I took a detour and again started walking on the footpath which was inundated with rain water. However, there were no pointers to the other uncovered manhole and my left leg simply slunk inside. Somehow, I managed to put weight on the other leg and disgorge myself from the death trap." Recalling the tragic death of a of gastroenterologist, Doctor Deepak Amarapurkar, last year in monsoon after he fell into an open manhole
in Elphistone Road, Nanda slammed the corporation for its failure to provide basic civic amenities to the citizens. An angry Nanda said, "This happens every single year and the BMC is doing nothing despite having the highest civic budget. If I had died in this mishap I would have been just another number in their death records; no one cares two hoots. The situation in the city is not so grim but the BMC owing to its wanton disregard behaves like a criminal."
