A 35-year-old motorcycle rider had a narrow escape when he slipped and fell with his motorcycle into an open stormwater drain at L.R. Nagar in Anepalya here on Saturday morning.
The incident occurred when Yesudas was pushing his bike with his 10-year-old son following him. Soon after reaching the open drain, Yesudas lost control as the road was slippery and fell into it. Yesudas sustained minor injuries.
Personnel from the fire and emergency service used a crane to pull out the bike from the approximately 20-foot-deep stormwater drain. Yesudas chose not to file a police report.
“Drains have been kept open in many parts of the city for cleaning purpose. We have clearly instructed the engineers to maintain basic safety standards like putting up signs near open drains. Some of the work has been outsourced to contractors. We will be having a word with the area engineers,” said Mayor Manjunath Reddy, when alerted about the incident.
Constant worry
There is also a danger of mosquito breeding and subsequent spread of diseases if the drains are kept open for too long.
“The open drain here is a constant source of worry for us,” said Vishwa Kumar, a senior citizen and a resident of Kalyan Nagar, which boasts of a stormwater drain that runs for several kilometres. “We have made several applications to BBMP … but, the officials there remain inaccessible,” he added.
The Stormwater Department had recently finalised around 120 tenders for cleaning up the city’s stormwater drains and had also identified 200 more places that needed to be cleaned before the monsoon.
