Delhi: Biker killed in Pragati Maidan tunnel; poor signal delays call

NEW DELHI: The 19-year-old biker who had met with an accident in the Pragati Maidan tunnel on Monday night, as reported in TOI, later died of his injuries. There was a 15-minute delay in making a PCR call because of a connectivity problem inside the tunnel which, his family now claims, may have denied him a shot at life.
A TOI reporter who was passing by stopped his car and tried to use the tunnel's SOS system, but couldn't get through.
CCTV footage shows the biker, Rajan Rai, driving in the carriageway towards India Gate, suddenly veering towards the right and driving into the crash barriers and toppling over to the other side. The TOI reporter, returning home in the other carriageway, spotted Rai, bleeding from the head and unconscious, with a crowd gathered around him. He stopped his car and stepped out.
How unresponsive SOS system in tunnel cost a life
According to police, the accident happened around 9.45 pm, as mentioned in the FIR. However, PWD has claimed that the accident took place at 9.53 pm. The police are investigating whether the bike had malfunctioned or Rai had dozed off.
The security guards were doing their best to shield Rai from the oncoming traffic and warn drivers even as they made frantic phone calls, both to their superiors and the police, but couldn't connect. They showed the reporter how they had been trying to call without success. Those who had stopped by, including the reporter, too tried to call without any result.
Strangely enough, the guards - besides the other commuters - seemed to be unaware of the emergency phone system installed inside the tunnel. When the reporter pressed the button located on the SOS system near the accident spot to call for help, there was no response from the other side. There was no public announcement either till the time he was present.
Only after he moved further from the accident spot, towards the ramp on Ring Road which goes towards Noida and Sarai Kale Khan, did the reporter get back connectivity. He immediately called officials in charge of the tunnel to seek help. Around the same time, 10 pm, the PCR got a call from another person who had passed through the tunnel and they rushed to the site. Rai was taken to Lady Hardinge Hospital in a critical state. He was declared dead on arrival.
The police said Rai was returning from Meerut and was on his way home in Uttam Nagar. He worked as a service engineer for a company in Jasola and it was his first job. The cops recovered Rai's helmet which had got completely crushed.
A case under sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way) and 304 A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC has been registered.
Vinay Rai, a relative of the victim, said he had called his father at 8.30 pm and said he was coming home and they would have dinner together. "He had also asked his brother to go to his friend's home and help him file a form," he said. Later, when his family tried to call him, his phone was unreachable.
Delhi government's PWD, which constructed the entire transit corridor and the tunnel, has been struggling to increase mobile network connectivity inside. It had invited telecom companies in December last year to install boosters.
"The work has been awarded and one of the companies has already installed the boosters but others are yet to do so. Hence, the problem of network connectivity persists. We are trying our best to speed up the work," a PWD official told TOI.
When the tunnel was thrown open in June last year, the authorities had claimed that it was equipped with emergency telephone SOS systems, was being digitally monitored and that a public address system had been installed.