Capital shame: 25-yr-old dies as bike falls into pit dug by Delhi Jal Board

The pit had been dug for an ongoing major revamp of the capital’s drainage network. Ashish Sood, Delhi’s Minister for Urban Development who is also the MLA for the area, said the project was part of a rehabilitation project for the nearly 50-year-old main sewer line which had all but collapsed.

The spot where the biker fell to death in a pit last night, at Janak Puri, in New Delhi on Friday. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)

The work on rehabilitating underground sewer lines in the area has been ongoing for almost three months, Delhi Water Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh said. However, it was only a day earlier, on February 4, that the pit was dug, officials said.

On both sides of the pit on Friday, mounds of freshly dug earth at least two feet high, lay in clear violation of the DJB’s contract conditions. According to the Board’s safety protocols and rules, excavated earth should not be piled up on either side of a trench, due to the risk of collapse.

While investigations remain ongoing, Delhi Police officials said the biker could have fallen while trying to ride over the dug-up mounds of earth. There was no CCTV camera in the vicinity to confirm the circumstances of the fatal incident, police officers said.

According to the DJB’s contract conditions, non-removal of excess earth and stones that can cause public harm or inconvenience attracts a fine of Rs 1,000 per day, until the completion of the project.

Sites are required to be barricaded and properly lit, but there were no reflectors at the spot, and diversion boards had gaps through which a motorcycle could pass. The DJB requires full barricading with red-and-white fluorescent painted sheets at work sites.

In an official statement released soon after the accident came to light, the DJB said that there was green mesh and safe barricading at the site. However, two residents of an adjoining residential society in front of which the fatal incident took place, claimed there was no safety mesh until Friday morning.

“The whole road has been dug up for the past six months. Till yesterday, there was no green net (safety mesh) attached to the diversion boards. It was only put up in the morning when the body was found,” one of these residents alleged.

A senior police officer told The Indian Express, “Prima facie, it seems there was a lack of barricading on the road due to which Kamal managed to enter it.”

The government has ordered an inquiry into the tragedy and to fix responsibility. Three officials involved with the project – a junior engineer, an assistant engineer, and an executive engineer – were suspended on Friday. The government announced an ex gratia of Rs 10 lakh for Dhyani’s family.

Officials said sewer-laying projects are particularly hazardous due to risk of flooding. On January 24, following the death of a 27-year-old man at an abandoned construction site in Noida, DJB CEO Kaushal Raj Sharma had directed in an official order that all DJB work sites should strictly follow safety measures.

In the recent past, the Board has internally flagged improper lighting arrangements at work sites and absence of barricading that could lead to accidents, especially during the laying of sewer lines.