Three students killed after basement of UPSC coaching centre in Delhi gets flooded


Three students allegedly died and several were trapped, after a nearby drain burst leading to flooding in the basement of a UPSC coaching institute in Old Rajinder Nagar on July 27, a Delhi Fire Service (DFS) official said

Videos of the area showed the Rau’s IAS Study Circle in old Rajinder Nagar completely flooded, with rescuers struggling to pump out the water.

According to a DFS official they received a call about students trapped inside the basement around 7 p.m.

The caller said that children were trapped inside a completely flooded basement of a UPSC coaching institute in Old Rajinder Nagar, following which 5 fire tenders were immediately sent,” said a DFS official.

Teams of Delhi Police, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the DFS rushed to the spot.

According to DCP (central) M. Harshvardhan, due to heavy rainfall in the Capital, there was waterlogging in the area, and adjacent buildings.

According to some local reports the permission for the basement was only for storage purposes but the owner was running a student library in basement

“It appears that the basement got flooded quickly due to which people got stuck in the basement. However, we are investigating how the basement got flooded so quickly,” said the DCP.

Further, he said that due to the waterlogged area being dark and owing to the presence of a lot of furniture, the rescuers are facing considerable difficulty.

Taking cognisance of the incident, the Delhi Government has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident.

Waterlogging is a major problem in Delhi every monsoon and one of the main reasons is that the city’s current drainage master plan was drawn up in 1976 when its population was around 60 lakh.