Three children drown in open pit near Mithi river

Three siblings drowned in an open pit near the Mithi river in Kalina on Tuesday afternoon. Eight-year-old twins Abdul Rahim and Abdul Karim and 12-year-old Abdul Aziz were playing in the open area adjacent to the river at Kapadia Nagar on CST Road when the incident took place. The pit was dug as part of the ongoing Mithi river project being undertaken by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC),under which retaining walls are being built to train the flow of the river.

Azaruddin Chaudhury,paternal uncle of the boys,said the BMC paid no heed to repeated pleas of residents of the nearby slum settlement to barricade open pits. “These pits are up to 10-feet-deep but are not covered by tin sheets or guarded by any watchman. My nephews were playing cricket in the open space close to the river when one of them dove into the pit for a swim. When he did not resurface,the other two jumped in to save him and drowned too,” he said. The family lives in the Mehboob Aalam chawl close to the Kailash Parbat building.

He added that the Fire Brigade arrived after half an hour and by then,local residents had fished out the bodies from the pit. An officer from the Kurla fire station said the children were rushed to Kurla Bhabha Hospital. “However,they were declared brought dead by medical officer Dr Rajesh Depe. The autopsy will be conducted at Rajawadi Hospital,” he said.

Story continues below this ad

Chief Engineer (storm water drains) L S Watkar said since work was not underway on Tuesday owing to a public holiday,there were no workers at the site to refrain anyone from going near the pits. “The work of building retaining walls is going on these pits of water,which are surrounded by heaps of soil. Being a holiday,no one was present at the spot,” he said.

The Rs 1,675-crore project of reviving the 15-km-long river is being undertaken by BMC and a 5.8-km stretch is being handled by the MMRDA. So far,both agencies have spent Rs 827 crore on the project.