Boy missing after falling into open drain in Bhubaneswar

BHUBANESWAR: A 15-year-old boy fell into an open storm water drain with his bicycle and was swept away in the middle of two hours of heavy downpour that battered the state capital on Sunday afternoon. The boy, Jyoti Behera, a resident of Dhipisahi at Baramunda here, had gone to Shatabdi Nagar for tuition. He has been missing since 2 in the afternoon.
Fire personnel, police and those from the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) had been trying to rescue him till the filing of this report. They could manage to find his bicycle, which was stuck in a corner of the drain.

“Water was flowing on the road connecting the mouth of the drain number 8 at Shatabdi Nagar. The boy was perhaps caught unawares while passing the mouth of the drain. He must have slipped into it and the current may have pushed him deep inside the drain. The drain is covered up to Gandamunda,” said assistant fire officer Sushant Kumar Biswal.

He added that in four hours of operation they have been able to fish out the bicycle. “We have handed over the bicycle to the family members. We have not found any other belongings. We are facing difficulty in entering the drain as it is covered and water is overflowing. We are keeping a watch and have suspended the operation temporarily,” Biswal added.

BMC additional commissioner Laxmikanta Sethi said the incident took place in ward 51. “Rescue operation is on. Because of the high intensity of storm water, drains are overflowing. Every possible way is being explored to rescue the boy,” said Sethi.

The city’s drainage system and poor storm water management had claimed two lives in the past. In September 2011, a two-year-old boy slipped into the drain while playing nearby his home at VSS Nagar. Fire fighters took two hours to fish out the body.