On December 25, 2022, at around 8:00 am, a two-wheeler rider was seriously injured in the neck and fingers by a stray nylon Manja (kite string) on the busy Panchpaoli flyover.
29-year-old Rajesh Purankar, a resident of Manav Nagar in Nari, claimed that nylon Manja severely wounded his two fingers and throat. A stray Manja apparently fell in front of Rajesh while he was riding his bike over a flyover when the flyover itself. Along with his wife and 6-year-old kid Noel, Rajesh was traveling to the Wanjari Nagar church for Christmas prayer on a two-wheeler.
As we crossed the flyover at roughly 8:00 a.m., Purankar continued, “I saw the nylon Manja and grabbed it with my right hand. But I couldn’t hold on to the Manja since it was cutting my two fingers. My throat was further cut as I let it go, but thankfully I was able to stop by applying the breaks to my two-wheeler. My life was saved by this.” He even inquired as to how the city’s once-banned Manja could still be seen there.
Despite the fact that Purankar did not report anything to the authorities, flyover users indicate that kite fliers from this area of the city frequently use nylon Manja. The seriousness of the Nagpur police in failure to monitor the sale and usage of Nylon Manja, as well as the safety of drivers, was also questioned by some motorists. In order to prevent Manja from falling on riders, the locals demand that the city police and the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) install pole-to-pole wire on flyovers and RoBs.
