Le Quyet Thang, director of the city’s Urban Traffic Management Unit No. 4, said more than 200 of 310 manhole covers from a 7.1 kilometer-long section of District 7’s Nguyen Van Linh Street and Nha Be District’s southern Ba Chiem Bridge have disappeared.
Thang said most of manhole grates on District 7’s Huynh Tan Phat Street had gone.
The city’s Urban Traffic Management Unit 1 said many cast iron manhole covers had been stolen from Nguyen Huu Canh Street, which runs through District 1 and Binh Thanh District, a section of Dien Bien Phu Street in Binh Thanh District and Tan Phu District’s Luy Ban Bich Street.
A manhole cover is worth between VND350,000 – 2 million (US$20-118).
While contractors have to bear the cost of replacing the manhole covers, the thefts are also putting the public in danger, as passersby could fall into the open sewer.
Last week, four-year-old Pham Nguyen Nguyen Phat died after falling into a manhole left uncovered for a flood prevention project.
He may have been trying to retrieve a ball from the manhole when he fell, his family said, after finding the child’s corpse in sewer.
The HCMC Urban Traffic Management Unit No. 4 said it was difficult to catch manhole grate thieves as they worked at night.
Local authorities should step up their street patrols to prevent anymore manhole grate thefts, the unit said.
Source: Tuoi Tre |
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