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| City's open manholes risking precious lives | | | Pankhuri Aggarwal
Jammu, Oct 12: With the authorities concerned looking the other way, the number of open manholes in the city has increased putting the lives of residents in danger. Uncovered manholes are the killer traps on city streets which pose a threat to commuters' lives. It stands itself in the middle of roads marking a grave danger to pedestrians and the motorists, but civic officials have yet to take any action to remove these risks.
In fact, open manholes have become virtual "death traps" for the residents. The roads tend to become drivers' nightmare, especially during the night when the drivers actually fail to notice them resulting in several accidents.
In a survey being conducted by the municipal corporation of Jammu revealed that a majority of the open manholes were in the old city. Since the old city has higher population density and more vehicular traffic the people here are at more risk than those in the other parts of the city. It also revealed that there are around 2,500 manholes out of which 1,500 are open, causing major traffic hazards in the Jammu city besides risking precious lives. Two big open manholes at the backside of Panjtirthy Mandir have become virtual "death-traps". Since both the manholes are just at the turn of the roads, it becomes very difficult for the motorists to negotiate the turns. Similar is the case in Rehari where the open manhole is just at the turn of road again putting the lives of the motorists at risk.
Even as the open manholes remain uncovered, the residents are at the receiving end. "With a majority of the streetlights non-functional, it becomes very difficult to drive on the internal roads", complained Praveen thakar, a resident of Rehari, who was injured a few days back when his scooter skidded into an open manhole in that Area.
Kamiya Dugal, a resident of city area, 62, suffered a fracture in his left leg, when he fell into the manhole. Talking to EARLY TIMES, Rahul said, "Around eight pm in the night I was coming back from a marriage. In the absence of the street light, I almost fell into the drain. When suddenly some people gathered around and saved me from falling into the death trap. They took me to the nearest government hospital too."
Waking up after the death of a seven-year-old boy who slipped into an open manhole few weeks ago, the administration is now planning to provide proper lids to the risky manhole, a move they have never thought about all these years. The worst part is that the administration has not even bothered to place warning signboards, as a result of which is a considerable number of road accidents take place due to it resulting into the death of the residents.
When contacted the senior officer of Municipal Corporation they said, "administration is keen to find some solution for this major problem. They even ensured that the deputy commissioner will soon convene a meeting to resolve the issue". Following this, the authorities had swung into action but now things seem to be back to the square one. |
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