Innovative fibre glass manhole covers keep thieves away as they yield nothing if stolen
A gaping hole on the road because the iron manhole cover is stolen is a common sight in the city.
Theft of the cast iron manhole covers is rampant as thieves can get a few bucks if they sell them to a scrap dealer.
The civic authorities have come up with a solution to curb the fast disappearing iron manhole covers. For the last year-and-a-half, they have started replacing cast iron covers with Fibreglass Reinforced Plastic (FRP) manhole covers.
Dilip Dedhia, director of Everlast composites Ltd, the company which supplies the new manholes to civic agencies, said the biggest advantage of these FRP manhole covers is their zero-recycle value.
“The metal covers are often stolen because iron and steel get good price at the scrap dealers. These fibreglass manhole covers cannot be recycled in any manner. Hence, theft has reduced significantly. Moreover, the covers cost 40% less than the iron manhole covers,” said Dedhia.
After observing that the new manhole covers are a success in Mumbai, Egypt has ordered the same kind of covers for its 14 cities, including Cairo.
According to senior officials of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), the FRP manhole covers have shown good results in the Wadala Truck Terminus (WTT) area.
“These covers showed excellent results for the roads in WTT, where MMRDA is the special planning authority,” said an official.
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials say that these manhole covers have been tried and tested in many parts of the island city such as areas around Vidhan Bhavan, Dadar, Girgaum and the WTT area.
Within BMC limits there are four lakh iron manholes covers, and out of those 15,000 have been replaced by new ones. “We began with testing five manhole covers and so far 15,000 FRP manhole covers are in use in the city,” said a deputy chief engineer of the civic body.
He added that the rampant theft of manholes has been a major concern for the civic body. “A manhole cover has an average life of 20 years. However, we usually have to replace it at least eight times in 20 years. This shows the rampant theft of manholes,” said the engineer.
“With new roads being laid, the number is likely to go up significantly. The BMC needs around 80,000 new covers every year,” said the official.
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