Funding among key hurdles in hostel infra expansion at affiliated colleges of DU

Even as key Delhi University (DU) hostel projects are progressing at a slow speed, the campus accommodation expansion in its affiliated colleges is also not moving at the expected pace. Funding, space constraints, land-use restrictions, and a lack of resources are said to be among the major limitations, The Indian Express has learnt.

The preferred accommodation option for outstation students is the on-campus hostel facility that some DU colleges offer. While the university’s hostels have 3,422 seats, over 80 colleges affiliated to it collectively have 3,788 hostel seats.

This is still woefully short of the number of students enrolling in the university — a large chunk of whom come from other states. On average, roughly 2.8 lakh students enrol in undergraduate programmes annually in the university, and roughly 11,600 students enrol in PG programmes.m The shortfall is particularly acute in DU’s South Campus where only two colleges have hostels — Sri Venkateswara College has about 144 hostel beds and Maitreyi College 103.

Lady Shri Ram College, which is also located in South Delhi, has around 150 hostel beds. In comparison, several North Campus colleges are better off with St Stephen’s having around 380 beds, Miranda House 361, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College having around 357 and IP College for Women around 450.

The shortfall has been a red flag for years. For instance, in October 2020, citing a massive increase in enrolment after the expansion of student intake to accommodate the new Economically Weaker Section (EWS), senior officials at Shaheed Bhagat Singh College flagged the need for an urgent expansion of infrastructure.

Six years later, it still functions without a housing facility for its students, and caters to both evening and morning shift students. Different college administrators that The Indian Express spoke to over the years suggest that constraints vary from one campus to another.

At some colleges, land availability on campus is a factor. For instance, Aryabhatta College and Ram Lal Anand College in South Campus share a roughly 10-acre plot, limiting the scope for another large building. South Campus colleges, such as Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, also cite regulatory roadblocks because they are located on the protected forest area of the South Central Ridge.

Aryabhatta College principal Manoj Sinha, said, “In the decentralised governance of Delhi University, a constituent college’s internal Building Committee handles the initial structural and administrative project approvals, as the college administration acts as the immediate local custodian of its specific campus land." Sinha emphasised that under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act (DPTA), 1994, the legal definition of a tree is incredibly broad, meaning even substantial woody shrubs and saplings require formal protection.

Once the Delhi Environment department grants clearance, the executing agency — typically Central Public Works Department (CPWD) — must legally enforce strict protocols to prevent tree damage, stated Sinha. The historical nature of the campuses also throws up regulatory challenges.

At Indraprastha College for Women, the Grade-I heritage status of the campus places restrictions on structural alterations and expansion. Alongside all these factors, funding is an overarching issue. There is no student hostel at Jesus and Mary College, leaving outstation students dependent on paying guest (PG) accommodations.

“We are a convent college. We don’t have any trust as such to fund such massive infrastructure,” said Principal Molly K A. After the building collapse at Satya Niketan on September 6, several women students took shelter inside the classrooms.

"Till how long can I keep them in classrooms?," the Principal had told this paper at the time. At Maitreyi College, which has a limited capacity of 103 beds, Principal Haritma Chopra said expansion requires resources not only for construction but also for staffing and services.

“The challenge with expansion is the availability of resources. We have to recruit housekeeping staff and ensure other amenities like a fully functional mess. It takes a few years, but we are certainly speeding up things,” she said.

Aryabhatta College’s Manoj Sinha, who is also the President of the Delhi University Principals’ Association, is blunt about the student housing gap. “DU is never going to accommodate everybody on the campus…There are more than five lakh students in the university, with approximately three lakh in regular programmes… You cannot keep adding students and expect the existing infrastructure to accommodate everyone,” he said.