BMC CIVIC chief Ajoy Mehta is taking the issue of open manholes in the city seriously. In a recently held review meeting, he instructed the utility providing departments of the civic body to act on all open manhole complaints within 48 hours.

This comes months after leading city gastroenterologist, Dr Deepak Amr­apurkar, died after accidentally slipping into an open manhole during the August 29 deluge. During the meeting, the local ward offices had opposed taking up the repairs of all manholes as they claimed that fixing manholes was the responsibility of utility providers. The civic body's utility section comprises storm water drains, wa­ter and sewage departments.