Two workers died after inhaling toxic gas inside a 15-foot-deep stormwater drainage well maintained by the Greater Chennai Corporation in Kodungaiyur on Monday evening, highlighting the immediate safety risks involved in repairing enclosed municipal drainage infrastructure.
The workers, identified as Naveen Kumar, 34, from West Tambaram, and Asmath Basha, 38, from Vellore district, had entered the well on Thendral Nagar 3rd Street to repair a malfunctioning electric motor. They had been engaged by a private firm contracted by the corporation for the repair work.
According to the report, the workers were struck by toxic gas trapped inside the sump after descending into it. They died at the spot. A colleague, Karthikeyan, who witnessed the incident, alerted the police.
Kodungaiyur police reached the location, and the bodies were retrieved with the help of fire and rescue personnel. The bodies were subsequently sent to Government Stanley Hospital for postmortem examination.
The drainage well is located in Ward 34 and forms part of the stormwater system used to collect water flowing through the stormwater channel. The structure is designed to facilitate drainage and collect rainwater, particularly during Chennai’s northeast monsoon. Water collected in the well is usually pumped out using electric motors.
One of the two motors installed inside the well had developed a fault recently, prompting corporation officials to arrange repair work. Naveen Kumar and Asmath Basha entered the enclosed structure on Monday evening to address the malfunction when they were exposed to the gas.
The incident also raises an immediate question about the condition of the water entering the stormwater system. Officials were examining whether sewage water had entered the stormwater network and contributed to the accumulation of toxic gases inside the enclosed well. The report did not establish the outcome of that examination.
Stormwater wells, pump sumps and other enclosed drainage structures can become hazardous when workers enter them without adequate information about the atmosphere inside. In this case, the well’s depth, the presence of trapped gas and the need to repair electrical pumping equipment combined to create a fatal worksite incident, according to the details reported.
The deaths occurred in a municipal drainage facility rather than on a conventional construction site, but the work was being carried out by private personnel engaged for a corporation-related repair. This places the focus on the safety arrangements governing contracted maintenance inside enclosed civic infrastructure, as well as on the responsibility for identifying hazards before workers enter such structures.
Police and fire and rescue personnel completed the recovery operation, while the postmortem process was initiated at Government Stanley Hospital. The corporation’s examination of possible sewage entry into the stormwater system was the next stated step in determining how toxic gas accumulated inside the well.
