Biker falls into trench dug up for work, dies
THANE: A 28-year-old biker from Diva died after falling into a 15-ft deep trench dug up to repair drains at Sambhaji Nagar near Korum Mall in Thane early on Tuesday. With the locals alleging lack of safety barricades around the construction site, the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has ordered an inquiry into the matter and demanded a report on the safety measures and the ongoing work in 24 hours.
The Wagle Estate police have arrested civil contractor Abhijeet Boradkar, 37, for negligence. The deceased, Prasan Deulkar, was a resident of Yashodhan Nagar in Thane and recently shifted to Diva. The TMC has suspended a junior engineer of sewage department, Vijay Lokre, who was responsible for supervising the work.
Senior police inspector, Wagle Estate police station, DS Dhole, said, “Deulkar had come to stay at his friend’s place on Monday. He was returning at around 6am to Diva when he failed to see the trench as there were no sufficient barricades or signages and fell into the nullah. We received a call from residents around 6am after which the rescue operation was conducted by the Regional Disaster Management Cell (RDMC) of TMC and fire brigade officials. We have sent his body for post-mortem.”
Additional commissioner of TMC, Ganesh Deshmukh, in his order, said, “The one-member inquiry set up in the issue will give a report on the name of the company carrying out the work, cost of the project, name of the person in-charge of the day-today progress, if enough safety measures were undertaken and the cost under which the project was funded. The inquiry will also focus on finding the exact reason for the accident.”
Pradip Pawar, 28, resident of Wagle Estate staying just 20m away from the spot of the accident, said, “The drainage work has been going on for the past one month without installing any indicators around the work. Just near the spot, there is a public toilet. Security guard of that toilet and an auto rickshaw driver were passing through the place and saw a man along with his bike had fallen in the drain. They called me and later we informed all officials.”