The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been absolved of the death of Dr. Deepak Amarapurkar by an inquiry committee. The committee submitted a 36-page report to the BMC on Thursday.
After studying documents, CCTV footage, and the statements of BMC staff and citizens, the committee came to the conclusion that no staff member of the BMC could be held responsible for the doctor’s death. Dr. Amarapurkar died after falling into an open storm water drain at Fitwala Junction on Senapati Bapat Marg near Elphinstone Road station during heavy rains that battered the city on August 29.
The report has red flagged inaccurate weather forecast and listed suggestions to prevent such mishaps in future. The committee consisted of Vijay Singhal, Additional Municipal Commissioner (Eastern Suburbs); C.D. Chore, Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Improvements); and V.P. Chitchore, Director, Engineering Services and Planning.
The report said, “From the CCTV footage secured from the police and a shop owner, it is evident that a group of citizens unauthorisedly opened the manhole covers and left without closing them. The police need to investigate and take appropriate action against the people concerned.”
Three shortcomings
The report found the forecast given by the Colaba Meteorological Observatory to be lacking on three counts. The committee said, “Forecast is not quantitative but very subjective; it is also not area specific and it is worded extremely vaguely. Because of such forecasts, disaster preparedness is either under activated or over activated. This causes panic or inconvenience to citizens.”
The Chief Officer (Disaster Management) mentioned in the report that observatory in its advisory for the day had forecast “intermittent rain or showers with heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely to occur at a few places in the city and suburbs.”
The report said, “Rains up to 204 mm was expected in 24 hours and accordingly necessary action was taken. However, the rainfall between August 29 and 30 was 333mm, which falls in the Extremely Heavy category. There was more than 200 mm rainfall at 26 rain gauge stations. If the prediction was Extremely Heavy rainfall, then standard operating procedure would have been activated. Citizens would have been intimated in advance through bulk SMSs and rescue teams would have been deployed at vulnerable spots.”
The committee suggested that the India Meteorological Department give specific forecast on the time-range, area or locality where rainfall is expected, rather than mentioning “at a few places” or “entire Mumbai City”. The IMD was also asked to mention the intensity “i.e. Heavy/Very Heavy/Extremely Heavy in quantitative terms.” The report also said that the IMD should ensure the Doppler Radar is functioning.
The committee while preparing the report had put out an advertisement requesting suggestions from the public to prevent such mishaps in future. However, the committee received just two suggestions: one from a BMC official and another from a citizen. One more suggestion put forward in a social media post was considered by the committee. The Chief Engineer (Storm Water Drain and Chief Engineer Sewerage Operations) will study these suggestions.
Install mesh covers
The committee was of the strong opinion that mesh-type covers should be placed five to six inches below the manhole cover to prevent such accidents in future. The viability of installing hinge covers will be studied too.
Satyajit Patil, Assistant Engineer (Storm Water Management) Chembur, suggested that Radio Frequency Identification tags be attached to manhole covers so that a message is sent to the Disaster Control Cell every time a manhole cover is removed.
The report also suggested that residents and shopkeepers alert the BMC of unauthorised opening of manhole covers in their localities.
