Manhole lid missing? Now, the onus is on you

Manhole lid missing? Now, the onus is on you

Manhole lid missing? Now, the onus is on you


This drain near Madiwala Police Station leaves much to be desired on BWSSB’s part.
N R Madhusudhan
First Published : 16 Jun 2009 04:42:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 16 Jun 2009 08:19:38 AM IST

BANGALORE: Following Abhishek’s death, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), will henceforth, replace damaged or misplaced manhole lids as soon as it receives complaints to prevent freak accidents. It will also undertake massive desilting of sewer lines to stop them from overflowing.

BWSSB has laid nearly 3,600 kilometres of lateral sewer lines and 180 kilometres of sub-sewer lines. These lines are connected to any of the four valleys namely Vrishabavathi Valley, Hebbal Valley, Koramangala Valley and Chalaghatta Valley. The sewage water flows out of the city through these valleys.

The sewer lines are interspaced with manholes at vital places to help clear the sewer lines whenever they get blocked. Most of these sewer lines are laid underground and there are more than 5,000 manholes.

People remove the manhole lids for rain water to flow through sewer lines.

Some of them do not replace the lids properly leading to accidents. In other cases, the manhole lids are damaged due to various reasons.

Some residents direct the rain water falling on their rooftops to the sewer lines making them overflow. Some others dispose their solid waste in the sewer lines causing blockages in them.

BWSSB has undertaken massive desilting of the sewer lines in the city.

Desilting work is undertaken every Tuesday at one of the identified low-lying areas every week. So far, desilting work has been completed at Pillanna Garden and Ulsoor. The recently inducted jetting machines are being used for the desilting work.

One of the BWSSB officials said, “We are preparing to replace the manhole lids as soon as we get the complaints.

We have undertaken desilting of sewer lines to prevent them from overflowing. We request the residents not to let rain water into the sewer lines and also not to dispose solid waste in them.” Residents can call BWSSB helplines to lodge their complaints.

CIVIC OFFICIALS TO COMPRISE MONSOON TASK FORCE

The newly announced Bangalore Monsoon Management Task Force (BMMTF) would be constituted on a permanent basis and is likely to comprise all civic stake holders, like the Bangalore Agenda Task Force during the S M Krishna period.

The only difference this time will be that there will be no private members in the team. Bangalore South incharge Minister R Ashok told The New Indian Express that the task force will comprise officers from civic agencies like the BWSSB, BSNL, BDA, BMTC, BMRDA, BBMP among others.

BBMP Commissioner Bharatlal Meena who is likely to be the member secretary of the proposed task force has been asked to work out the composition and functions of the BMMTF which will focus only on tackling the monsoon woes in the city, Ashoka said. The proposal with guidelines and functions will then be forwarded to the government for a formal approval. A clearer picture will emerge after a week, the minister added.