PMC starts safety upgradation at the Bhimsen Joshi auditorium

It took a mishap involving a five-year-old boy falling off the first floor green room of Aundh's Bhimsen Joshi auditorium to wake the Pune Municipal Corporation and the management of the auditorium from a deep slumber. After the child landed in an intensive care unit with severe head injuries, the school officials conducted a safety audit of auditorium and reported it to civic authorities. The PMC administration has now decided to install metal grills on the doors and windows of the auditorium as safety precautions.

The young victim, Arnav Buch, a student of Wakad's Euro School had been preparing for a dress rehearsal of the school's annual day at the auditorium, when he accidentally fell down from a window of the green room on February 14. After the report had been publised in dna on the incident on February 18 , the school authority wrote to the PMC commissioner Vikas Deshmukh, highlighting certain safety lapses in the design of the auditorium.

Finally, the administration has decided take precautionary measures by installing steel grills to the windows and the doors wherever there is a possibility of mishap. S D Naigude, manager of the auditorium told dna, "We have already taken a cognizance of the incident and we have immediately given order for installing safety grills to the window from where the boy fell down. Not only the concerned window, but all other windows and doors where there is a danger of children falling, we be fenced with the steel grills."

When asked about the other safety lapses mentioned in the letter by school administration at the auditorium, Naigude said, " We are taking review of all the suggested measures and all the suitable changes will be made soon."

Meanwhile, the five year old continues to undergo treatment in a private hospital. According to the hospital authorities, the boy is stable but continues to be in the Intensive Care Unit.