Cuttack, Feb. 2: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik will inaugurate two students' hostels at Ravenshaw University tomorrow.
The two new hostels - Mahanadi (for girls) and Lalitgiri (for boys) - have come up on the campus at an estimated cost of Rs 20 crore.
With the addition of these two, the total number of hostels at the varsity has now gone up to 13 from 11.
Varsity officials said the Mahanadi hostel would accommodate 600 students, Lalitgiri had space for 400 boys.
"We will be able to accommodate 1,000 more students. This will be in addition to 2,800-odd students in the 11 hostels on the campus," said vice-chancellor of Ravenshaw University P.C. Sarangi.
At present, 1,581 girl students are provided accommodation in six hostels - Kathajodi, Parija, Daya, Devi, West and Bhargabi.
In the four existing hostels meant for boys, 1,184 students are given accommodation, while one facility is not on the campus. Varsity sources said only 25 per cent of the total 8,000 students were being provided with hostel. This has created problems for girl students coming from other parts of the state.
Lack of adequate hostel facilities was creating problems for the girl students as they were either renting rooms or staying in private mess outside the varsity.
"We were earlier staying in a private mess for which we were spending nearly Rs 1,500 to Rs 5,500 per month towards rent. As a new hostel will be inaugurated on the campus tomorrow, the authorities have assured us to accommodate there soon," said Sikha Pradhan, a student.
The dearth in hostel facilities also compounded problems of the authorities as they found it hard to clear the backlog of students awaiting accommodation.
"The condition of the hostels is another area of concern since most of the existing facilities are over-crowded. The condition is so grave that five to six students share one room and there is absolutely no space for study," said Santosh Das, another student.
"We will now focus on setting up hostels for research scholars and students and building state-of-the-art facilities at the proposed second campus of Ravenshaw University near Naraj," Sarangi said.
