The Times of India 08.01.2010
3 weeks on, BMC launches fresh search to trace kid
MUMBAI: The BMC has laun-ched a fresh search to try and locate the three-year old boy who fell into a manhole almost three weeks ago at Mankhurd. Terming this as their last-ditch attempt, officials are going to insert a camera into the sewer drain and monitor it from the surface.
“This is a very emotional matter, so we need to do all that we can. It will take us two days to cover the 500-metre stretch to record the footage. Once that is done, we will end the search,’’ said deputy municipal commissioner D L Shinde.
On December 20, Ayub Salam from the PMGP housing colony in Mankhurd fell into an open sewer drain and was not found. In a double tragedy for the family, his grief-stricken grandfather, Pervez, died from the shock the next morning.
The BMC officials had two phases of rescue operations in the initial period. After having conducted the search with a drain cleaning and jetting truck, the fire brigade opened up all the manholes leading to the Ghatkopar aerated lagoon and, along with rescue teams, hunted for the missing boy. “At first, we searched for 72 hours at a stretch. Then, a few days later, we searched for four days but there was no trace of the boy,’’ said Shinde.
