Two workers, contractor suffocate to death inside Panvel manhole

NAVI MUMBAI: Two conservancy workers and a contractor who had hired them died of asphyxiation inside a Panvel sewage line manhole at around 5pm on Wednesday. The two workers entered the 20-feet-deep manhole first to clean the underground line, and when they didn’t come out in some time, the contractor stepped inside for a check. The bodies of all three were pulled out by a rescue team of Cidco, the local planning authority.

The Panvel city police have registered an accidental death case. Two of the victims, the contractor Vilas Mhaskar (55) and worker Santosh Waghmare (40), have been identified, said inspector Vinod Chavan; the third had not been identified till the time of going to press. But police said all three were residents of Panvel’s Kalundre village. Locals alleged all three had entered the manhole without any protective gear. The contractor had been appointed by Cidco.

As per the provisions of the state’s Municipal Solid Waste Management Act, 2000, manual cleaning of sewers and manholes is banned in all corporations that come under this Act. The ban has been upheld by the courts in several orders. However, sanitation workers are still made to enter manholes by those who hire them, and in addition, private contractors hire men to clean manholes or sewer lines on private premises, in societies or in industrial units.

Kalundre resident Gautam Gaikwad, an eyewitness to the incident, said, “One worker first entered the manhole using a steel ladder, while the other was talking to him about the work. As the first worker who had gone in did not respond to the second after some time, the second one entered the manhole. Both did not come out. A big crowd gathered. The contractor Vilas Mhaskar entered finally. He did not heed the crowd’s warning to him not to get in.”

Gaikwad added, “The contractor has been doing routine cleaning works ever since the Cidco sewer line was laid in the area.”

Panvel City Municipal Corporation (PCMC) fire officer Anil Jadhav confirmed the sewage line is around 20 feet deep. “Using hooks tied to a rope, the rescue team pulled out the three bodies. A steel ladder was found inside the manhole,” he said.

Dr Nagnath Yempalle, medical superintendent at the Panvel sub-divisional hospital said, “The post-mortem will be conducted and viscera samples preserved for further tests.”

Social worker Ganesh Gharat said Cidco should have ensured the workers used safety gear. “No Cidco official was present. We demand compensation for families of all the victims,” he said.

RTI activist Anarjit Chauhan demanded that a criminal case be lodged against officials responsible for the deaths. “In Mumbai, the BMC has banned such dangerous manual cleaning of underground lines. The same precaution should have been taken in Panvel.”

Cidco’s Panvel executive engineer Vishnu Kamble said, “The incident was reported in the sewer line when we were in a meeting at Cidco Bhavan. The contractor is responsible for providing safety gear. Compensation will be decided as per rules. The contractor had been doing this work from July 2018.”

Cidco superintending engineer P Phulari said, “Safety rule compliance is the contractor’s responsibility. The executive engineer and his juniors are responsible for checking and compliance. We do not have any information regarding any violation of safety rules.”