Two workers drown in 6-feet-deep manhole in Bengaluru

Two labourers died after being trapped in a manhole linked to a water pipeline during the torrential rain on Tuesday night, officials said.

The pipeline had been laid as part of the Cauvery Stage V project. It is about six feet deep with a two-foot-wide circular opening.

The victims were supposed to leave for the day at 6 pm at the end of their shift but their superiors forced them to work until 9 pm even though it was raining heavily.

Dev Bharat Kushwaha, 36, of Bihar, Ankit Kumar Sahani, 23, and Triloki, 37, both from Uttar Pradesh, were working with six other labourers at the site near the bus stand in Upkar Layout, Ullala Upanagara, West Bengaluru.

The work was contracted to Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL), an infrastructure company.

The workers’ job was to connect the pipelines and weld them.

Shortly before the shift was to end, the company’s project manager, Shiva Kumar, site engineer Harish Reddy and labourer contract supplier Manoj Yadav visited the site and asked Kushwaha, Sahani and Triloki to work until 9 pm and complete the welding of the pipeline from inside.

By then, it had begun to drizzle. The workers refused to work and expressed fears that it was going to rain heavily. They said they had started early in the day and asked to be relieved. But the superiors asked them to complete the pending work before leaving. The workers agreed while six of their colleagues left.

The superiors asked Kushwaha and Sahani to get into the pipeline while Triloki’s job was to stay outside and hand them the materials needed for welding the pipelines.

Kushwaha and Sahani jumped into the pipeline because there was no ladder.

It started raining heavily around 7.30 pm. Water from the road and an adjacent drain initially flowed into the large pit that was dug for laying the pipelines.

Seeing the heavy rain, Triloki got scared and asked his co-workers to come out. Meanwhile, water started to fill the pipeline, too, trapping the workers. They tried to heave themselves up but the absence of a ladder put paid to their plans.

Triloki was not able to pull them out either. He screamed for help but there was no one around. He didn’t even have a phone to call the manager and seek help. Meanwhile, the water completely filled the pipeline while the two labourers were still trapped inside.

Around 9 pm, another labourer named Pavan came to the site and told Triloki that the contractor was calling all three. Triloki told him about the incident. By this time, it had rained so much and the pit was so flooded that the pipeline’s opening became invisible.

Resigned to fate, Triloki and Pavan left but returned around 6 am on Wednesday. They pumped the water out with a motor and pulled the bodies.

Triloki later filed a complaint at the Jnanabarathi police station. Police have filed a case against Kumar, Reddy, Yadav and the company’s HR manager, Narasimharaju, after a preliminary investigation found that they had acted negligently, said a senior police officer said.

Sanjeev M Patil, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West), said that based on Triloki’s complaint, a case under IPC Section 304 A (causing death by negligence) has been taken up at the Jnanabharathi police station and four people have been arrested.

The senior officer quoted above said all the four suspects had been given bail.

Police also registered a case against some other employees of the company, another senior officer said.

In the complaint, Triloki said the company officials hadn’t provided them with any safety gear or a ladder to get into the pipeline. A sidewall should have been built around the pipeline’s opening so that rainwater didn’t get in, Triloki stated.

Will act against contractor: BWSSB

“We have filed a police complaint against the contractor and will serve him a notice soon. We will also ensure that the families of the victims receive compensation according to the norms of our tenders,” BWSSB Chairman N Jayaram said.

Ramesh S V, Chief Engineer (Cauvery), BWSSB, said: “We have formed an internal committee to investigate the matter. At the onset, we see that the contractor is at fault. We will also investigate if any of our officials are at fault and take suitable action.”

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday announced Rs 5 lakh compensation each to the families of the two labourers.