Mumbai Woman's Death Puts Spotlight On Manhole Tragedies, What's Behind Them

The death of 45-year-old Vimal Anil Gaikwad after she fell into a manhole in a waterlogged street last night has put the spotlight on Mumbai's manhole tragedies and the lives they have claimed in the past few years.

This year alone, seven people have died in manhole tragedies in the Maximum City. Last month, Sunil Wakode, a labourer, opened a BMC manhole in Borivali West for cleaning drains without the civic body's permission. He died later. Earlier, in April, three people -- Raghu Solanki, Javed Shaikh and his brother Aqib Shaikh -- fell into a manhole in Malad East. Raghu had fallen into the 30-feet-deep manhole and brothers Javed and Aqib tried to save him. Raghu and Javed died in the incident.

In March, a manhole tragedy claimed three lives. Labourers Suraj Kevat, Bikas Kevat and Ramlagan Kevat were cleaning the sewer drain in Malad West when they fell into its chamber and died.

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

Sheetal Bhanushali, a 35-year-old homemaker and mother of two, died after falling into a manhole in Ghatkopar during heavy rain. Her body was later found near Haji Ali.

The past few years have also seen a sharp rise in cases of manhole cover thefts in Mumbai. Last year, cases of 791 manhole cover thefts were recorded. The year before that, the number of such cases was 836, the highest in four years. This was a sharp rise as compared to such cases recorded 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 -- Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 -- in the black market, making them a preferred target of petty thieves.

Following Dr Deepak Amrapurkar's death, the Bombay High Court suggested that BMC install preventive grills on the manholes to protect the covers from thieves.

In a hearing last year, the court noted that the grills had been installed on only 1,908 out of the total 74,682 manholes in the city. The court had then pulled up BMC for the tardy progress.