A 23-year-old student, Harshit Bhatt, died after drowning in a water-filled construction pit in Noida on Wednesday afternoon. He had gone there with three friends to celebrate the end of their exams. Police said his three friends, who tried to save him, were safely pulled out of the water. The incident happened in Sector 94 along the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, according to a report by The Indian Express.
This comes less than three months after a similar accident in Sector 150, where a software professional drowned after his car fell into a waterlogged pit.
Who was Harshit Bhatt?
Harshit Bhatt was a final-year student at the Amity School of Physical Education. He had just appeared for his examination on Wednesday afternoon and left the campus shortly after. According to the university, he was a regular student pursuing his final year studies, and his sudden death has come as a shock to the campus community.
“Harshit Bhatt was a final year student of Amity School of Physical Education. Exams are going on and he left the campus today after writing his exam in the afternoon. We were informed by the police about his death,” IE quoted Savita Mehta, Vice President, Communications at the university, as saying.
“We are fully cooperating with the police. We express our deepest condolences to the bereaved family members,” the university added.
According to police, the incident happened around 3:15 pm when the group was near the pit, which looked like a small lake. Noida DCP Saad Miya Khan told the news outlet that police reached the spot after receiving information from Sector 126 police station about a possible drowning.
Rescue teams rushed, investigation underway
Rescue teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), and the fire department were called in. While three students were rescued, Harshit could not be saved. His body has been sent for post-mortem, and police are investigating what exactly led to the incident, including the depth and condition of the pit.
“While three of the students were rescued, one drowned,” Khan told IE.
Eyewitness recounts students entering site
A local man, Saroj Kashyap, who works as an ambulance driver, said the four students had entered the partly fenced construction site after parking their motorcycles near the Supertech Supernova project. He said one of the students seemed to have entered the water, after which others tried to help.
“Around 3.30 or 3.45, one of the boys came running, crying and asking for help,” Kashyap, an ambulance driver, told IE.
Kashyap said he, along with an e-rickshaw driver named Harsh, went into the water but could not find Harshit at first. He said it took nearly one and a half hours to pull Harshit out because the water was deep and filled with grass and algae.
He added that police arrived within 10 minutes, after which he went back into the water with a rope tied around his waist.
He eventually found Harshit deep inside the pit. “I found him deep inside the pit. His leg was entangled in long grass, which I removed, and his hand was stuck between some iron bars. I flipped him over and pulled him to the surface,” IE quoted the ambulance driver, as saying.
“It took around an hour and a half to pull him out, since the water is deep and filled with grasses and algae,” he added.
Another local, Chaman Singh, told IE that the pit has been abandoned for nearly 10 years and has been dangerous for a long time. He recalled hearing the students shouting that someone had drowned. He also entered the water but could not find Harshit. “The water is very deep. Some animals have drowned here earlier,” he said.
Similar tragedy reported earlier this year
Earlier in January, 27-year-old Yuvraj Mehta had died in a similar incident in Sector 150 when his car fell into a water-filled construction pit during dense fog. He reportedly cried for help for nearly two hours as rescue teams struggled without proper equipment.