City’s booming education sector spurs hostel services expansion efforts

Ahmedabad: Ahmedabad is witnessing a rise in the number of students coming in from across Gujarat as well other states to pursue higher studies or to prepare for competitive exams. As the city emerges as India’s new and growing education hub, the existing student accommodation infrastructure seems inadequate to meet the fast-growing demand. The crunch is a real challenge which universities and hostel providers are working to address, having chalked out expansions plans for the near future.Anup Singh, director general of Nirma University said, “Earlier, the university provided hostel facility only to MBA students. A 1,000-bed hostel that we opened later for female students is now fully occupied.” Singh added, “We get students from other cities in significant numbers, so we are now planning a new 1,500-capacity facility for female students. In the meantime, we are putting them up in a community hostel nearby.”Brijesh Tripathi, who heads a coaching institute, said, “A good number of our students come from Kutch, Surendranagar, Palanpur, Sabarkantha, Banaskantha and Patan. We refer them to various accommodation facilities in the city."Hostel providers confirmed that most of their facilities are running at full occupancy and that this year is witnessing a high demand. Feels Like Home (FLH), which forayed into student accommodation about a year and half year ago, soon expanded to six facilities with a combined capacity of 900, and most of these are nearing their full capacity.Deval Patel, director of FLH, said, “Four of our hostels, with a total capacity of 600 students, have a tie-up with Ahmedabad University, and are full. Our other facility, which is in collaboration with Allen Career Institute, too is nearly full.” Patel plans to add three more hostels in a year.Hostel Basera, a startup active in the co-living space, has 13,000 beds spread across 450 properties in Ahmedabad. “But 95% of them are occupied even though colleges have only begun their admissions process,” said Chintan Gandhi, the startup’s founder. “Enquiries from new students project a 60% rise in demand. We are going to double our capacity within a year,” he added.