A search was under way on October 10 for a child who, according to a Divya Bhaskar report, fell into an uncovered drainage line near Pipalaj on Ahmedabad’s Narol-Pirana Road while returning home with family. Fire department personnel were checking the underground line and nearby waterways, but had not located the child at the time of the report.
The incident reportedly occurred near the Pipalaj octroi post, close to Dev Farm and the route connecting Shastri Bridge towards Ganeshnagar Chhapra. The report said the family had travelled by autorickshaw after visiting a canal and had stopped to pay the fare. During that moment, the child allegedly moved a short distance behind the family and fell through the open drain.
The supplied report identifies the child as Manisha Salat, but gives conflicting ages of nine and 10. It also describes the drain as 20 feet deep in one section and refers elsewhere to a depth of 35 to 40 feet. These details require confirmation from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, the fire department or the police before they can be treated as established facts.
According to fire officer Pritesh Gadhvi, drainage-line work was in progress when the child fell. He said the child may have been carried further along the line by the water flow. A firefighter identified in the report as Prakashbhai said the team was facing difficulty because the line contained roughly 15 feet of drainage and chemically contaminated water, making it unsafe to enter directly.
The fire department had reportedly been searching for about three hours and had begun checking a line covering a radius of approximately one kilometre. The operation was also complicated by ongoing bridge work, the absence of street lighting and the continuing flow of water through the drainage system.
Ahmedabad Mayor Hitesh Barot was reported to have reached the site. He said two lines ran around 35 feet below ground and that teams were also searching towards the nearby river and canal. The report attributed to him the statement that the drain cover had not been opened by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, raising questions about who had left the opening uncovered. That attribution and the status of any official investigation also require confirmation.
The report said the child’s father works as a daily-wage labourer. It described the family as returning home with two boys and a girl after visiting the canal. The account of the family composition and the child’s age also varies within the supplied report.
The incident places attention on the risks created when open drainage infrastructure, active construction and poor visibility overlap on a heavily used urban route. However, the child’s condition, the precise location of the opening, the ownership of the drainage line and the agency responsible for securing the site had not been independently established in the supplied material. Further updates from the fire department, police or civic authorities are awaited.
