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The BMC on Wednesday came up with a helpline to address complaints of missing manhole covers. The civic body has also issued a set of guidelines asking scrap dealers not to accept manhole covers.
Seeking to prevent accidents which occur owing to open manholes, the civic body released a public notice informing that no person other than the municipal staffers should open the manhole covers. The BMC’s move comes days after two men drowned after falling into a manhole of an overflowing drainage at Govandi on Saturday evening.
In the public notice, the BMC has asked all the scrap dealers to not deal in stolen manhole covers. It has also issued a helpline number – 7718001430 for citizens to lodge complaints related to open manholes. “It is a serious and punishable offence for anyone other than the authorized municipal staff to open sewer/SWD manholes covers,” read the notice issued by the civic body. In case of violation of the rule, the civic body has warned of legal action.
“If the sewer is found open or if anyone other than an authorised personnel opens the sewers or if anyone is caught buying or stealing them, citizens must immediately report to the nearest BMC Chowki… or the helpline numbers”, added the notice.
The BMC has also stated that citizens may reach out to local ward offices to lodge a complaint and for every ward, 24 different helpline numbers have been activated to lodge complaints.
“The stolen manholes are usually noticed by the sweepers during morning. However, now that monsoon is on, the open manholes may pose a risk to citizen’s life. The helplines will facilitate citizens to lodge a complaint if they spot an open manhole and we can take action at the earliest,” said an official adding that the manholes covers are made of cast iron, which if traded in the scrap market gives a decent return.
Meanwhile, as a precautionary measure, civic officials said that they will be installing protective grills in all the open manholes across the city to prevent people from falling inside them. Currently, 1,908 manholes have grills of the total 74,000 manholes in the city.
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