Some colleges are planning to call students with odd and even roll numbers separately to avoid crowding after the campuses reopen on November 16.
Some others have plans to call honours and general course students on separate days to the campus.
The college authorities are making plans for staggered reopening so that phy-sical distancing can be maintained as much as possible, said several principals.
Although chief minister Mamata Banerjee had on Monday announced that academic institutions would reopen from November 16, the state government is yet to issue any advisory on how to resume in-person classes maintaining Covid protocol.
The principal of a college in central Kolkata said they were contemplating splitting students into smaller groups based on odd and even roll numbers.
“We don’t know yet whether we have to call only final-year students or all students together. In either situation, the odd-even formula will help avoid crowding,” the principal said.
According to her, some schools had applied the method when they reopened for Classes IX to XII in February.
Another principal said they were exploring the possibility of calling honours and general course students on separate days. “We can call those in honours and general courses on alternate days. Maintaining physical distance is the key,” he said.
Shyamalendu Chatterjee, the principal of Chittaranjan College in central Kolkata, said they had plans to call arts and commerce students separately.
Some principals said they had asked the teachers to come to the college and check whether the lab instruments are in proper shape.
Joydeep Sarangi, principal of New Alipore College, said they had 11 labs for subjects like physics, chemistry, geology. The teachers concerned have been asked to take turns in checking whether any instrument was malfunctioning.
“The campus has remained shut for 19 months. Some of the instruments might not be in working condition. They must be back in shape before the campus reopens,” he said.
Swami Kamalasthananda, principal of Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Centenary College, Rahara, said they had plans to call students to attend practicals in the first phase.
Calcutta University has asked the heads of the postgraduate courses to dust, clean and sanitise class-rooms, laboratories, library, seminar rooms, offices and toilets.
Amit Roy, secretary of science and engineering faculty council of the university, has told the department heads that the campus caretaker section would provide the housekeeping personnel.
The engineering department will provide the agency that will carry out sanitisation.
The laboratories of the university that had been reopened for postgraduate students in January were closed in March following a spike of Covid cases.
