Mumbai: Car submerged in Mogra nullah for 15 minutes, close shave for BPO employees

MUMBAI: The employees of a BPO had a narrow escape after the cab ferrying them got submerged in Mogra nullah.
The car that left a Malad BPO at around 3.45am was swept into the Mogra nullah at around 4.30am when the rush of water, like a flood, dragged the vehicle in and floated for about 100 metres before the rear windshield broke.

A DN Nagar police patrolling mobile van, which was close to the nullah and on night patrolling, went to the spot after noticing a headlight blinking in the nullah.
Almost for 15 minutes, the survivors were in the car that was submerged with just its roof visible from the top before the vehicle stuck to the pipe and the rear windscreen broke.
"After dropping off one of the BPO employees Vijay Parab, the car was about to head to Khar (east) from the Western Express Highway to drop Mansoori but was pulled into the nullah due to water force," said police.
The bank-end office employee of the BPO, Sujata Bedarkar (28), who joined the call centre six months ago, immediately managed to scramble out of the rear side and climbed onto the roof of the hatchback car that had almost submerged in the rushing nullah and screamed for help.
“It was pitch dark, water was gushing in the car, we stopped breathing as the water from nullah would have taken our lives had the rear side of the car not got hooked to the pipe passing by the nullah boundary wall. I hanged another employee, Wasim Mansoori’s (26), with a belt so that I will not get drowned inside,” said cab driver Vijay Varvate while recounting the scary night.
“We don’t know who all came for help. Just remembered a few hands reached us to pull all three of us out. It was a second life. I still cannot recollect what has gone wrong. Everything happened in a fraction of seconds after we dropped one of our colleagues Vijay Parab at Jogeshwari railway station (east) and were about to take left when the water hit our car and swept us into the nullah. My office colleagues were taken to the hospital on learning about the incident. The office has provided us with an app and they got the danger alert when I did not pick the call which I get daily sharp on reaching my home,” said another survivor Bedarkar.