A video of a two-wheeler sinking into an open manhole by the side of a road allegedly in Chembur, a suburb in Mumbai, had attracted attention on social media, after which the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation on Monday denied that the clip was from the city.
A video posted by Sourav Sanyal, executive editor of India Ahead, on Twitter had showed a man trying to pull the scooter out of the manhole. He was later joined by three more men who helped him retrieve it. The tweet was removed following the BMC’s clarification.
However, the BMC’s tweet came less than a week after two people narrowly escaped injury after falling into open manholes during heavy rains in Mumbai. Tanmaya Nanda, a former journalist, posted on Twitter last week that he fell into an open manhole on the sidewalk on Veera Desai Road, but managed to pull himself out. Nanda told Mumbai Mirror that he was not aware that the manhole cover was broken.
Another journalist Ashish Ghorpade was on his way to office when he slipped into an open manhole outside WEH Metro station in Andheri. Ghorpade said the water reached his nose, but he managed to pull himself out of the manhole.
Open manholes have been a problem in Mumbai for some years now, and pose a danger to citizens more so during the rains. In 2017, a doctor in Mumbai died after falling into a manhole near Elphinstone Road. His body was later found near Worli.
Heavy rain continued to lash Mumbai on Monday, affecting flight and suburban train services. Flights were delayed due to heavy rain and poor visibility. Departures were halted briefly and flights scheduled to land were asked to go into holding patterns while conditions cleared. Flight operations resumed at around 9.30 am, but the airport’s public relations office confirmed said three flights had to be diverted due to poor weather, according to NDTV.
Correction and clarification: The article has been updated to add the BMC’s denial that the video was from Mumbai, and that the original video which was tweeted has been deleted.
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