An open manhole on Dakbungalow Road in Patna. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, June 3: This monsoon, a wrong step on the city streets can land you in trouble. For, the death traps on the city streets — the uncapped manholes — will remain wide open. The civic body today expressed its helplessness to cover them owing to funds crunch before the rains.

A fortnight after nine-year-old Roshan Kumar died slipping into an open manhole in the Bhootnath Road area in Patna City, the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) backtracked on its promise to cover about 50 open manholes ahead of monsoon. It shrugged off the responsibility, saying the state government had not released funds to carry out the work.

Safe roads are bare minimum in a civilised society. But PMC failed miserably on this front in the past. It will flunk the safe street test this monsoon as well.

Mayor Afzal Imam appeared serious to plug the holes after little Roshan lost his life on May 21. But he seems to have lost that conviction now.

Imam told The Telegraph: “The state government gives us money ahead of rains every year to de-silt drains, cover catch pits and plug manholes. But this year the government has not allotted any money so far. Hence, we cannot initiate the works.”

PMC commissioner Divesh Sehra admitted during the Corporation Board meeting on Wednesday that the work to cover the catch pits or manholes could not be started because the state government had not released any money on this head.

“When the money comes, we will start the work,” he had said in the meeting.

Repeated attempts to contact the urban development minister, Prem Kumar, proved futile.

There are four administrative zones under PMC — Bankipore, New Capital Circle, Kankerbagh and Patna City. There are several manholes or uncovered ditches in each division. The lids are either left open after de-silting drains or are stolen.

Many accidents, few of them fatal, are reported from different areas every year. The Telegraph had reported on open manholes in the city streets earlier. Be it thoroughfares like Bank Road, Anugrah Narayan Sinha Library Road, Boring Canal Road, Patliputra Road, Main Road of Patna City, or alleys, open manholes are a common sight everywhere.

The corporation does not have any record or data on the total number of manholes in the city. There is no centralised information regarding the exact location of uncovered manholes in the city either, the civic body authorities admitted.

According to sources, the civic agency spends around Rs 3 crore every year to get the drains and catch pits cleaned and cover the manholes ahead of the rainy season. The mayor said each zone prepared estimate of pre-monsoon works ranging between Rs 50 and Rs 70 lakh. But the civic body had only Rs 75 lakh and it was used to clean some drains.

“Several clogged drains remained untouched because of lack of funds,” Imam added, implying that there would not be immediate relief from the death traps lurking on the roads in the form of manholes — deep and uncapped.