Kathmandu, July 20

A car fell into a pit dug by Melamchi Water Supply Project in front of Nirmal Niwas here early this morning.

Shashank Shah, the driver of the car, sustained minor injuries for which he was treated at Teaching Hospital.  He was discharged today itself.

The incident occurred five days after Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba told the authorities concerned to fix all potholes and pits in Kathmandu within 15 days.  The PM’s instruction came after schoolgirl Binita Phuyal drowned in a rain-filled pit at Nepaltar, while another schoolgirl, Satya Sapkota, fell into a pit at Samakhushi. Fortunately, Sapkota was rescued by the locals.

The car driven by Shah fell into the four-metre deep pit around 4:30am and police personnel were able to rescue Shah at around 5:15am by breaking the window of the car. The police later extricated the car with the help of a crane.

Shah said the accident occurred while he was on his way to his residence in Bansbari after closing Venture Café in Baluwatar. He refused to give more details of the incident, saying he and his family were too traumatised to share more details.

Police source said Shah was found to be under the influence of alcohol when the incident occurred.

Police Inspector, Maharajgunj Police Unit, Raj Kumar Neupane said the police had been reminding Melamchi Water Project officials almost every day to fill the pit but their requests fell on deaf ears. DIG Mingmar Lama said police had asked Taresh Khatri of the Melamchi Water Project why his office did not fill the pit which it was supposed to do within 22 days of digging it.

According to police, it’s been more than a month since the pit was dug.

DIG Lama said another car had also fallen into the same pit on June 16. Driver Aron Thapa and his friend Yunis Limbu had sustained minor injuries, he added.

Resettlement Expert of Melamchi Water Project Giri Bahadur Sunar said the pit was dug to test water pressure but since the water pipe laid by the project leaked they decided to repair the pipe first and could not fill the pit on time. He said the project had erected barricades to prevent such accidents.

He assured the police that the project would accelerate its work to test water pressure in the pipes and do the needful to fill pits on Maharajgunj-Bansbari and Maharajgunj-Bhatbhateni stretches. He added that his office would rapidly fill the pits on the Chuchhepati-Chabahil, Chabahil-Dhobikhola, Thapathali-Sundhara, Ratnapark-Jamal and Jamal-Lazimpat stretches soon.