Surat: Three persons died after inhaling poisonous gas while working inside a drainage line in Piplod area of the city on Wednesday. The deceased have been identified as Sunil Raju Dangi and his father Raju Bujia Dangi and their labour contractor Kalu Babariya.
It is still unclear why the victims had gone to clean the drainage line despite it being a public holiday on account of Parshuram Jayanti.
According to the police, Sunil entered the drainage line near Megh Malhar apartment, behind SVNIT at Piplod, on Wednesday afternoon. When he did not come out, his father Raju went inside to see what happened. Both of them fell unconscious after they inhaled poisonous gas inside the drainage line. When the father-son duo did not come out, the labour contractor also went and met with the same fate.
All three were taken to the New Civil Hospital (NCH), but declared dead on arrival.
The Surat Municipal Corpration (SMC) had allotted the work of laying up of new drainage line in Piplod to agency known as Kirti Construction. However, as it was a public holiday, no supervisor from SMC was present at the site.
An official of SMC said, “We need to get clarification from contractor what his people were doing on a holiday in absence of any SMC official.”
He also added, “Gases like hydrogen sulphide and carbon monoxide are formed in drainage lines which become lethal if inhaled in large quantity.”
A case was registered against the drainage contractor with the Umra police station under the Manual Scavenging Act. Under the act, no person is supposed to enter manhole for cleaning purpose.
The drainage manhole near Ichchhanath area where the incident happened on Wednesday