A Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) report on the drowning of a three-year-old boy in an open manhole in Gulshan-i-Iqbal has attributed the incident to the “carelessness” of officials of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service and a department store adjacent to where the incident took place, it emerged on Wednesday.
The body of a three-year-old boy who drowned in an open manhole near Nipa in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Sunday night was found on Monday, about 15 hours after the incident occurred.
The KMC report, a copy of which is available with SunriseHe said the department had received instructions from Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab and Municipal Commissioner to launch an operation to recover the boy’s body from the drain located in front of Chase Department Store in Nipa.
He said that after the boy’s body was recovered, “the site was meticulously inspected to determine the exact cause of the drowning.”
According to the report, the inspection found that ongoing BRT construction work at the site was a “significant contributing factor.”
“According to the reports of the concerned inspector and residents of the area, the construction of the BRT has caused serious damage and disruption to the entire drainage system, which runs from Nipa towards Aziz Bhatti Park,” he said.
“It was observed that, in most locations, the drains were covered with two-by-two-foot square temporary covers. Unfortunately, one of these covers was allegedly left open in front of the Chase Department Store,” he said.
“It is pertinent to mention that the procedure of covering the cleaning pits with two by two feet square covers from Nipa road to Aziz Bhatti Park is a non-standard practice which KMC never implemented anywhere,” he said.
He further highlighted that BRT service officials had not formally notified or obtained permission from the KMC before carrying out excavation work.
“These pits were dug by BRT officials and subsequently paved during the construction of the road,” the report said.
In light of those facts, the report concluded that the incident occurred due to “carelessness on the part of both the BRT officials involved and Chase Departmental Store management,” as “neither took adequate steps to ensure the open drain.”
It is worth mentioning that the construction of the Red Line BRT project has turned the city’s main arteries, including one of the busiest, University Road, into construction zones.
The report added that under the supervision of Eastern District Deputy Commissioner, Gulshan-i-Iqbal Deputy Commissioner and BRT engineers, the dug pits had been filled to maintain traffic flow.
The boy’s tragic death, particularly the lack of cooperation from relevant civic agencies to launch an immediate search, angered relatives and residents of the area, who staged a protest on University Road on Sunday night and again during the day on Monday.
On Tuesday, many political parties staged protests against the provincial administration and demanded the resignation of Karachi’s mayor, while pleas were also filed in court demanding action against city officials.
