IIT Delhi going through hostel crisis, collaborates with OYO to provide off campus accommodations

In order to accommodate the increasing number of students enrolled in the Indian Institute of Technology this year, the institute has collaborated with space aggregators  OYO to accommodate the students. IIT Delhi has enrolled over 500 students in excess of its capacity this year due to the supernumerary seats for women, additional seats for foreign nationals in PhDs and the newly introduced Economically Weaker Sections Quota (EWS)

M Balakrishnan, Deputy Director of IIT Delhi said that the institute was earlier itself facing hostel crunch for which they decided to set up two new hostels one for the male and other for female students. He added that although the construction of both the hostels will be completed next summer, the institute still will be unable to accommodate all the students on the campus. He also added that the number of admissions has been increasing each year.

As per data from the deputy director, close to 50 girls have been enrolled in the supernumerary female-only quota, while 100 students have been enrolled under the EWS quota. Apart from this, the institution is also increasing the Ph.D. students’ enrollment as part of the Institute of Eminence Status. From the 200 Ph.D. students at IIT Delhi, 30 percent are from the EWS category.

In order to accommodate the increased number of students, IIT Delhi is making a makeshift arrangement. The institute has arranged off-campus accommodation for 550 boys in the nearby areas while the female students have been accommodated inside the campus by utilizing empty staff apartments, guest houses. Etc. This, however, is a temporary arrangement and the institute will be looking for better permanent solutions, the Deputy Director assured.

With IIT Delhi being in close proximity with the Indira Gandhi International Airport, the institute faces the limitation of increasing the space vertically as well. IIT Delhi has collaborated with many space aggregators such as OYO and Airbnb in order to provide accommodation to the students in the vicinity of the campus. The cost of the off-campus accommodation is taken up by the institute itself.

However, this is not a problem faced by IIT Delhi alone. Recently the Jawaharlal Nehru University also converted its common spaces into dormitories in order to accommodate the excess students. Complaints were raised by the students against the university with regard to the haphazard way in which the students were cramped in the spaces.