The newly constructed hostel at Sonaram Higher Secondary School. Telegraph picture

Sept. 29: The students of Sonaram Higher Secondary School at Bharalumukh have a reason to rejoice as they are about to have a new hostel on the campus from the next academic session 20 years after the only hostel was closed down.

One of the oldest schools in the state, the school has made significant contribution to the spread of education in the state.

Bhupen Hazarika was a student of this school for a year. The first chief minister of the state, Gopinath Bordoloi, and writer Hem Chandra Goswami were headmasters of the school. Bipin Bihari Chattopadhyay was the first headmaster of the school.

Situated near the Brahmaputra, the school now has around 500 students from Class VI to XII.

Nayan Kumar Das, a doctor who lives in the US, and also an alumnus of the school, came forward to build a new hostel for the school when he visited two years back. Das is the grandson of social worker Sonaram Raj Medhi — the person who set up the school in 1894.

The school had a decade-old students’ hostel which remained closed for 20 years as its condition became too rickety.

The structure of the vacant hostel is still on the school campus reminding people of its glorious past.

“Two years ago when Nayan Kumar Das visited the school he saw the dilapidated structure of the old hostel. He sent a letter to the school authorities asking if they would allow him to build a new hostel for the students. The school gladly accepted his offer,” said Md Sarif, a member of the school management committee.

“As Das stays in the US, he had given his brother Jitendra Kumar Das who stays in the city, the responsibility of completing the hostel,” he said.

Das said the old hostel was built in 1894.

At least 25 students will be able to stay in the new hostel. Sarif said the hostel would be opened for students of all classes and the boarders would be selected by the school.

“ Construction is nearly complete. As soon as it is finished the building will be handed over to the school authorities to open it for the students, hopefully, in January,” Sarif said.

He said they were also applying to the Centre for another hostel under Babu Jagjivan Ram Chhatrawas Yojana.

“The new hostel will be only for the Scheduled Caste students as the scheme was specially made for them. We have submitted the plan of Rs 60 lakh for a proposed two-storey hostel which will be equipped with a library and a gymnasium,” Sarif said.