14 Mumbai spots set for smart manhole covers by Aug end

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is set to install smart sensors over manholes by August-end, in a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country. This is to detect theft of covers, monitor sewage levels as well as prevent accidents. Giving its nod to the pilot project, the civic body has issued work orders to install sensors over manholes, which will go off if someone tries to remove the covers, in 14 locations across the city.Mumbai has over one lakh manhole covers, which are used to shield the entry and exit points of the network of stormwater drains (SWD) and sewerage channels that run underneath the road surfaces. Of these, 74,000 cover sewerage channels.Civic body data shows theft of these covers has risen exponentially over the past four years. Stolen with the intention of selling them in scrap, manholes without covers often result in injuries to people and, in unfortunate cases, fatalities. To prevent this, the civic body came up with the ‘smart manhole’ project.Explaining the mechanism, a senior civic body official told The Indian Express, “As a part of the pilot project, we will install sensors on the manholes. If anybody tries to remove the cover, the sensors will send a message to our control room — there are three — raising alarm. Alerted, a team will rush to the location. Besides, we are also working on a local alarm, which will go off and create a sound, alerting even the locals at the place.”