Mumbai: 12-year-old dies in pit dug up for Coastal Road

A 12-year-old boy slipped and drowned in a pit dug up for the construction of the Coastal Road in Worli on July 12. Residents rescued him and took him to BYL Nair Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival. Worli cops have registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR). This is the second such incident in a week, after 2-year-old Divyansh Singh fell in an open gutter in Goregaon.

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Bablu Kumar Paswan, 12, a resident of Nehru Nagar, Worli, was on his way to taking a leak at 5 pm. Upon his return, he tried to draw some water from the pit dug up for the Coastal Road. His leg slipped on the gunny bags placed around the pit. Residents of Nehru Nagar tried to rescue Paswan, but to no avail. "The matter was reported to us during the early hours of July 13 from Nair Hospital," said Sukhlal Varpe, senior inspector, Worli police station. "After we gathered the statements of eye-witnesses and the post-mortem, we filed an ADR."

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The Coastal Road project, which will run from Princess Street flyover in Marine Lines to Bandra-Worli Sea Link (south side), at a cost of '12,000 cr, has been seriously criticised by the resident groups of South Mumbai. The death due to drowning at one of the construction sites, as mentioned by the locals, has given another reason for the residents to oppose it.

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M Machiwala, the chief engineer of the project, was not available. Dr Ramesh Bharmal, dean of Nair Hospital, said, "Following the post-mortem, which was performed at the hospital, the body was handed over to the family."

(Inputs by Chetna Yerunkar and Rupsa Chakraborty)

Protest at BMC

The family of toddler Divyansh Singh carried out a protest at Ambedkar Nagar's BMC office. They want an FIR filed against the BMC and the mayor of Mumbai. Uncle Sandeep Singh said, "To be honest, the civic officials were never serious about searching for the kid. They never had enough equipment for the rescue operation."

- Dipali Kirpalani

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