Noida: Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority has launched a citywide drive to identify and secure open pits, manholes and accident-prone locations following the death of a six-year-old boy who drowned in a water-filled pit left unbarricaded inside a housing society on July 25.Avyaan Surya slipped into a 15-foot-deep pit dug two days earlier by GNIDA contractors for a tubewell project inside Kaladham Society in Knowledge Park II. The child had entered the pit to retrieve a stick while playing with other children. He was taken to Yatharth Hospital, where doctors declared him dead. Residents said the pit had no barricades or warning signs despite being within the society premises.The Authority terminated two water works department officials for alleged negligence and arrested the contractor engaged for the project.On Wednesday, teams from Authority’s project and water and sewer departments began covering open manholes and drains, repairing potholes and barricading hazardous spots across all work circles after Greater Noida Authority CEO Ravi Kumar NG directed officials to immediately identify and fix all hazardous locations. “We have warned that strict action would be taken against the concerned work circle officials if any accident occurs due to negligence,” the CEO said.Additional CEO Sumit Yadav said the drive will continue until all vulnerable locations are addressed. Until Wednesday, more than 100 vulnerable locations had been secured in sectors including Alpha I, Beta I, Gamma, Delta and Omicron.Residents said the incident had exposed a pattern of negligence. “Authority workers often dig up roadside pits and leave them unattended. Such unwanted incidents keep happening because these sites are not properly secured,” said Harinder Bhati, a resident of Sector Beta I.Open pits and unbarricaded drains have claimed several lives in the district this year. On Feb 1, a one-and-a-half-year-old girl drowned in an uncovered, garbage-filled drain ten metres from her home in Dalelgarh. Two weeks later, a three-year-old fell into a water-filled pit left unattended after excavation work in the same village. On June 15, Atul Kumar Joshi (45), a hospital manager from Faridabad, died after his motorcycle plunged into a seven-foot-deep pit at the end of an incomplete airport-link road near Manjhawali bridge in Dankaur.
