KARACHI: Hours after the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) blamed the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Red Line for the tragic death of a three-year-old boy in an open manhole, the project’s management hit back, rejecting the allegation as “a serious oversight”, igniting a rare public showdown between two government bodies already under scrutiny for Karachi’s crumbling infrastructure.

First it was an inquiry report by the KMC on the incident which attributed the tragedy to the “carelessness” of officials of the Red Line project and a department store adjacent to where the incident took place.

The body of the child, who died after falling into an open manhole near Nipa in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Sunday night, was found on Monday, around 15 hours after the incident.

The report by the KMC said that the department had received instructions from Mayor Murtaza Wahab and the municipal commissioner to initiate an operation for recovering the body of the child from the drain.

Assistant commissioner among five officials suspended by CM

It said that following the recovery of the child’s body “the site was meticulously inspected to ascertain the exact cause of the drowning”.

According to the report, the inspection revealed the ongoing BRT construction work at the location to be a “significant contributing factor”.

“Based on reports from the inspector concerned and area residents, the BRT construction has resulted in the severe damage and disruption of the entire drainage system, which runs from Nipa towards Aziz Bhatti Park,” it said.

“It was observed that, at most locations, the drains were covered with temporary two by two feet square covers. Unfortunately, one of these covers was reportedly left open in front of the departmental store. It is pertinent to mention that the procedure of covering cleaning pits with two by two feet square covers from Nipa to Aziz Bhatti Park road is a non-standard practice never implemented by the KMC at any location.”

It further stressed that BRT service officials had failed to formally notify or obtain clearance from the KMC before carrying out excavation work. “These pits were excavated by BRT officials and subsequently paved over during road construction,” the report said.

In light of those facts, the report concluded that the incident occurred due to the “carelessness of both the concerned BRT officials and the management of Chase Departmental Store” as “neither took adequate measures to secure the open drain”.

Blaming Red Line project represents ‘serious oversight’

However, within hours of the report hitting television screens and going viral across social media platforms, the Red Line management issued a strong rebuttal to the KMC’s claims, calling the findings “a distraction from the actual responsibilities” and insisting the tragedy occurred far from any of its construction activity.

In a letter to KMC authorities, it said that there has been no civil works activity on or near the site of the unfortunate incident.

“It is important to clarify that the location of the incident is at a considerable distance from the BRT Red Line construction works,” reads the letter, a copy of which is provided to Dawn.

“There is currently no excavation, no barrication for construction, or any form of activity by the BRT Red Line team at or near the incident site, even the road pavement is intact. Moreover, the BRT project has no administrative, operational, or maintenance responsibility for the sewerage or Nullah infrastructure where the incident occurred. Furthermore, there have been no civil works activity on or near the site of the unfortunate incident,” it said.

It said that the ongoing works of the BRT were initiated after obtaining a no-objection certificate from the relevant authorities, who all were taken on board for construction before start of any activity on the site.

“The parking area where the incident took place is utilised by the store and is [at] considerable distance from BRT works, thus, attributing this tragic incident to the BRT Red Line project represents serious oversight and distraction from the actual responsibilities,” added the letter.

Five officials suspended

Also on Wednesday, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah ordered the suspension of five officials over their alleged negligence.

The officials are Senior Director of Municipal Services at KMC Imran Rajput, Assistant Executive Engineer of Town Municipal Corporation Gulshan-i-Iqbal Rashid Fayaz, Executive Engineer of Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation Waqar Ahmed, Gulshan Assistant Commissioner and Mukhtiarkar Amir Ali Shah and Salman Farsi.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2025