Oil, politics, poverty, enviromental and security issues aside, the most absurd story dominated headlines of the worlds largest read english daily – the Times of India today. Headlines read – “1,500 manholes stolen, BMC says olympics to blame”. The BMC or Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation , is the corporation in charge of the city’s civic maintainance – responsible mainly for the building and maintenance of roads, streets and flyovers, water purification and supply, hospitals, street lighting, maintenance of parks and open spaces, sewage treatment and disposal etc.

So what bizarre connection do India’s sewage covers have with the glory of global sportsmanship at the olympics? The paper quotes civic officials saying that the massive construction activity undertaken for the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing has increased demand for iron ore globally. As a result, they claim, organised gangs are now operating in Kurla, Bandra, Mankhurd and parts of Byculla (parts of Mumbai city) to systematically steal the manhole covers. A staggering 1,500 covers have been stolen in the past few months—each costing a handsome Rs 5,500 (US$128) in the grey market.

Trying to cap the open threat to passers by who unassumingly walk into them, the civic authorities are now looking at buying ductile-iron covers, which have a lower scrap value than the current cast-iron covers.

The Chinese demand is not only resulting in thefts in Mumbai but also in parts of Europe and America, the paper reports. Earlier, we used to buy the covers for Rs 3,500 (US$82) but now the prices have touched the Rs 5,500 mark (US$128),’’ said senior officials. The BMC’s sewerage operations (SO) and storm water drains (SWD) departments look after about 80,000 to 85,000 manholes between them.