Two Women Fall Into Open Manhole as Heavy Rains Lash Mumbai

The incident occurred on Wednesday evening, when Mumbai was lashed by heavy rains and many parts were inundated.

(Photo: Twitter screengrab)

Two women walking along a flooded footpath in Mumbai's Bhandup suddenly fell into an open manhole, as seen in a video of the incident that went viral on Thursday, 10 May, evoking outrage of city residents.

The incident occurred on Wednesday evening when Mumbai was lashed by record heavy rains and many parts were left inundated, leading to suspension of even the suburban trains for several hours.

A CCTV screengrab showed the two unidentified women, walking along the pavement with umbrellas, falling inside the same open manhole, within seconds of each other.

Fortunately, they appeared to be unhurt and slowly moved away from the open manhole. The BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation was slammed on social media for its negligence.

As the CCTV footage went viral, Mayor Kishori Pednekar rushed to the spot for an assessment.

Similarly, Municipal Commissioner IS Chahal cracked the whip, ordering an urgent survey of all the drainage manholes across the city and repair or replacement of any broken, damaged or missing covers.

A team of civic workers this morning went and replaced the Bhandup manhole cover which had apparently been washed aside by the floodwaters, and almost trapped the two women.

Manhole at Bhandup which was replaced after the incident.(Photo: IANS)

On 29 August 2017, the city was left in shock after a leading gastroenterologist of Bombay Hospital fell into an open manhole and his body was recovered from the Arabian Sea off Worli after several days.

Mumbai roads have an estimated 3,50,000 plus manhole or drain hole or gutter covers of which barely 1 percent have been fitted with an extra safety grill below to prevent humans or small animals from being trapped or sucked inside.