Delhi coaching centre deaths: Rain, oversights, and students in a basement

The flooding claimed the lives of 21-year-old Tanya Soni, 25-year-old Shreya Yadav, and 29-year-old Nevin Delvin

A localised downpour floods a road in waist-deep water, where a passing SUV creates a wake so strong that the waves knock over the main gates of a building, unleashing a deluge into the four-storey structure’s basement — roughly around 6.40pm, these unlikely set of events combined to flood the underground library of Rau’s IAS Study Circle coaching centre in Old Rajendra Nagar.

Rescue workers pump out water from the basement on Sunday. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

The flooding claimed the lives of 21-year-old Tanya Soni, 25-year-old Shreya Yadav, and 29-year-old Nevin Delvin. Their bodies were recovered after disaster response teams and firefighters pumped out water from the basement, but not after hours of waiting for the waterlogging outside to recede.

The factors that led to their death spotlights yet again the dismaying state of the country’s national capital, where at least 18 people have now died this monsoon — including a cab driver when canopy over the airport’s foyer collapsed, a student who was electrocuted while trying to cross a waterlogged street, and a commuter caught in a flooded underpass.

According to eyewitnesses HT spoke to and mobile phone videos shot by onlookers, there was little the three victims of Saturday evening’s flooding could do once the gates fell.

The blue-grey metal structure acted as a dam to stop the water pooled on the road outside after a spell of unusual, localised rain. “Waterlogging is a common occurrence here. But once that barrier was gone, water gushed in quickly,” said one of the security guards employed at the centre, asking not to be named.

What brought down the gate was a powerful wave of water created by a black 4x4 passing through the road, videos shot by onlookers from a building on the other side showed.

“Within two minutes, the entire basement was flooded. Around 25 students who were downstairs managed to climb up, but about seven or eight of them got trapped,” said the staffer.

Of them, Soni, Yadav, and Delvin drowned.

In all, 30-35 students were believed to have been in the basement of the four-storey building in Old Rajendra Nagar, a hub of institutions that coach students on cracking India’s Administrative Services (IAS) recruitment process.

Another coaching centre staffer, who taught students, described the immediate aftermath of the gate collapse and the flooding, which suggested many had a close escape.

“By the time fire department officials came, we had already rescued five-six of the students. We used a hose pipe installed in our building, tied it around ourselves, threw it at the students in the basement, and then pulled them up,” he said, asking not to be named.

This person said that he made an emergency call to the fire department at 7.06pm, but two officials came after at least half an hour — without any equipment.

Delhi Fire Services (DFS) director Atul Garg said that when fire officials reached the spot, all students who could be rescued were already outside — those still in the basement had already died.

“The road outside was waterlogged. There was no way we could pump the water out. Therefore, we had to wait till the water from the road receded on its own before we could pump out water from the basement,” he said, adding that about 35 men took part in the operations.

Garg said that a lack of drainage caused a major hurdle in their search and rescue operation.