The city’s Sector 20 has the highest number of manhole covers, which is 78, which is followed by 77 manhole covers in Sector 8, as many as 76 in Sector 35 and 27 covers at Punjab Engineering College (PEC).


The Municipal Corporation in its General House meeting on Monday approved the proposal of the replacement of about 2,000 manhole covers in the city with cemented ones at a cost of Rs 75 lakh. The agenda was approved to preserve the heritage manhole covers, which are stolen to be auctioned in the international markets for lakhs for rupees. Thus, henceforth, the manhole covers will be preserved in the museum, while some will be kept in store.

Accortding to reports, several Le Corbusier-designed covers have been auctioned in foreign countries at high prices, ranging between between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 15 lakh.

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Officials of the department of Urban Planning said that the same designs could be replicated on the cemented manhole covers with the help of moulds. “They can make moulds from the existing ones and very easily the design can be transferred on the concrete,” the official said.

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