KARACHI, Jan 5: The number of open manholes in the city has risen alarmingly mainly owing to the withdrawal of zonal chief engineers’ powers to procure manhole covers and other necessary equipment, and also because of the absence of a vigilance system against the theft of these covers.

Karachi Water and Sewerage Board officials estimate that there are more than 250,000 manholes in various localities of the city falling under the jurisdictions of several agencies such as the KWSB, cantonment boards, Railways, Pakistan Works Department and the Karachi Port Trust. Around 6,000 of them either have no covers or their covers lie broken and thus pose a danger to the lives of pedestrians, in particular, and motorists, in general.

The presence of such a huge number of uncovered manholes at a time when most localities and streets remain without electricity at night may result in death and maiming of pedestrians. Already, a number of children, in particular, have fallen prey to open manholes. One such incident in which two children lost their lives occurred in the Garden area on Sunday while a similar tragic incident claimed lives of two boys near Al-Azam Square, in Liaquatabad Town, last year.

Though most open manholes exist in the suburbs of the city such as Landhi, Malir, Korangi, Shah Faisal Colony, New Karachi, Orangi, Gadap, Surjani and Baldia, uncovered manholes may be spotted on major thoroughfares of Nazimabad, Jamshed Town, Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Saddar Town.

During a recent visit to I.I. Chundrigar Road, this reporter saw more than a dozen uncovered manholes in front of the Railway Stadium, near the Railway Station and in the vicinity of Mohammadi House.

It was, however, shocking to see that a large number of manholes of the storm-water drain passing in front of Nazimabad’s Sir Syed Girls College were without covers and students of the college apprehended that such manholes might prove death traps for them.

Attributing the cause of such a huge number of uncovered manholes in the city to the concentration of powers of procuring manhole covers and other essential items through a quotation worth Rs100,000 with the managing director of the KWSB, officials seeking anonymity said that previously chief engineers and executive engineers had powers of ordering manhole covers and other essential equipment according to the requirement of the localities falling under their jurisdiction.

“With the withdrawal of those powers of chief engineers and executive engineers during the tenure of the former managing director, not only the procedure of acquiring manholes’ covers through registered suppliers of the KWSB has become cumbersome but has also become time consuming,” sources said, adding that it took at least two to three months to get the delivery of manhole covers from a supplier because a requisition of manhole covers initially made by the XEN concerned is required to be referred to several offices such as the superintending engineer of the town concerned, zonal chief engineer, DMD (Technical Services), accounts, auditing, budget sections and finally to the MD secretariat for his approval.

They further complained that since most of the time files containing a requisition concerning manholes’ covers remained stuck in the MD’s office for weeks, the XENs concerned remain helpless in providing covers for open manholes or in replacing broken manholes with the new ones.

They also pointed out that thefts of manhole covers were also rampant in various parts of the city as there was no proper vigilance system in the KWSB to curb such thefts.