Ravi Patil

open manhole

BMC

Matunga flyover

Five Gardens

gastroenterologist Dr Deepak Amrapurkar

PHOTO BY RAJU SHINDE

ByandManhole herocalled 101, 1916 and then the ward office, but there was no help forthcoming.And when he failed to get anybody in the BMC to stir, Ravi Patil, a supervisor for a contractor appointed to look after the garden under the, called some of his colleagues who helped him put the manhole’s lid back on.Patil, 34, had decided to break for lunch and was riding his bike home when he noticed the open sewer manhole near Jagadeo Narayan Verma bus stop opposite Shrinivas building nearin Matunga. The manhole was right in the middle of the road and looked like a certain death trap for motorists.The first thing Patil did was park his bike next to the pothole in the way of oncoming traffic. He then stood there warning motorists of the danger, waving them away from the manhole. Parallely, he began dialing the disaster management cell number, hoping a team would be rushed to the spot. But there was no response from the first two numbers he dialed, and a woman attending the third said she would alert the people concerned after finishing her lunch.Patil did not budge from the spot for the next 1.5 hours, sacrificing his lunch break in the bargain. Since the garden he maintains — Nathalal D Mehta garden, Mumbai’s first garden under a flyover — is not very far from the manhole, he called some of his colleagues to the spot. A gardener and a watchman soon arrived, one of them carrying a pick-axe. The three then managed to put the manhole’s lid back on.“I was shocked to hear the responses of BMC officers. Since I got no support from the BMC, I decided to do the job myself. This open manhole could have led to a serious mishap,” said Patil.Noteddied after falling into an open manhole during heavy rain in August last year. It is suspected a BMC employee opened the manhole to drain Thursday’s rainwater runoff and then forget all about shutting it.Patil said he is aware that only authorised BMC employees are allowed to open or shut a manhole. But according to practice, a red flag or a bamboo stick is supposed to be put up near an open manhole along with a warning sign. Also, a civic employee is supposed to be at the spot to signal motorists away.When Mumbai Mirror contacted F-North ward’s disaster management cell, officials acknowledged there was a complaint by Patil, but insisted that the issue was resolved. “All the manholes and dhapa drains are covered in that area,” said an official.Assistant Ward Commissioner Keshav Ubale said he had received no complaint of open manholes in Matunga and was not aware of the matter.