KOLKATA: Three labourers who climbed down a 10-foot-deep manhole, supposedly to repair a connection joint of the sewer drain at Kolkata Leather Complex premises, without any protective and support gear, died, possibly after inhaling toxic gases and drowning on Sunday morning.
The deaths come four days after the Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered a complete ban on manual scavenging and sewer cleaning in six major metropolitan cities: Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. Although the area is not under Kolkata Municipal Corporation, it falls within the Greater Kolkata Metropolitan Authority.
A preliminary investigation found that three labourers, Farzem Sheikh (58), Suman Sardar (30), and Hasibur Sheikh (30), were construction workers entrusted by KMDA to construct and repair the manhole sewer drain. The area had a faulty drainage network that was leading to sewage water spilling on the main road, and that is why KMDA was rebuilding the drainage network, an official said.
Sources said while the manhole construction was complete, water seepage from another pipeline was loosening the manhole’s joint with the high drain. That is when Farzem went inside to block the seepage with a sandbag to finish the construction. He somehow fell sick and got trapped inside.
“When Farzem did not come up, two others went in to save him, but when several minutes passed and they too didn’t come up, a fourth person tried to walk down the ladder attached to the manhole but came up by himself after feeling sick. That is when local people and the labourers called the local police station,” said a senior Kolkata Police officer.
Cops have detained a representative of the contractor entrusted to do the work.
All three bodies were fished out of the manhole by professional divers after a four-hour operation by the Fire Brigade and Kolkata Police disaster management group. All of them were from Murshidabad. Cops sent their bodies for post-mortem at NRS Medical College and Hospital.
Mayor Firhad Hakim termed the incident as “unfortunate” and announced that their family members will get a compensation of Rs 10 lakh.
Police said the labourers were engaged by Sector 6 Industrial Development Authority when the mishap happened around 9 am in front of plot number 452 at Zone 7 of the premises.
Hakim said that work on a new sewer drainage network was being implemented by KMDA, although the work originally belonged to the MSME department.
“As per my knowledge, it was supposed to be a dry pipeline in which the labourer entered through the manhole inlet. But discharged water from nearby factories somehow seeped into the pipeline, and some chemical reaction possibly took place, leading to the formation of poisonous gases that in all likelihood led to his death,” said Hakim, after a meeting with cops, KMDA chief engineer, and site supervisors. He said CM Mamata Banerjee was extremely concerned about the incident and asked him to rush to the spot the moment she heard about it.
Hakim added the inquiry will find out why labourers were asked to go down the manhole instead of a machine and why no safety gear was allotted to them.
“We need to find out why no inspection was done of the dry drainage pipe about the accumulation of discharge water. We also need to find out why no test was done to check the presence of poisonous gases inside the ducts and why men were preferred over machines to go inside the drain. We will find out if it is the fault of the contractor or some official,” said Hakim, adding that authorities will take a lesson from the incident and will ensure it never happens again.
Zone 7 of the Kolkata Leather Complex, a 4.5 sq km industrial complex at Bantala, is around 17 km from Science City. TOI found Zone 7, where the incident took place, was patches of mud tracks with dirty black water accumulated in several places emitting a filthy smell.
Rakesh Roychowdhury, the local union leader, said they addressed the issue before the authorities on several occasions, but it was only after KMDA took over the sewer pipeline revamp work that portions of the premises became cleaner.
“They have made this place like a hellhole. I was not aware that KMDA has taken charge of sewer pipeline installation and connection in this area. It has to be checked why they started the work without cleaning this mess. The waste from the factory should have been disposed of separately. Instead, they are throwing it away directly on the road. This has to stop,” said Hakim.
