DU is buzzing again

Walls and street lights have been plastered with flyers advertising services for incoming students – some PGs promising ‘all premium facilities with budget’ and others promising ‘luxurious five star accommodation’; tiffin services; and IAS coaching centres.

Kamla Nagar, one of the primary centres of student life near North Campus, was buzzing on Wednesday with students and parents milling around looking for PGs and checking into them.

At University Girls PG, Wednesday afternoon was a busy one, with a constant stream of people walking in and some students loading their suitcases, bags and blankets into the elevator to move into their rooms.

“Around 25 students have booked rooms and moved in today itself. Before this, around five girls had moved in over the last four days,” said J P Singh, who runs the PG accommodation. He is also the president of the Delhi Student Housing Association.

“I have 14 PGs near DU colleges, and 70% of the seats are booked already… A lot of PG operators weren’t ready for business when the DU notification was issued and needed to do renovation work, so all might not be available right now. Even we needed to do minor work like carpentry but people are already moving in,” he said.

This was reflected in Stanza Living’s PG located at Kamla Nagar’s busiest chowk, where all rooms but one were booked even as the last minute construction work was underway.

“Most of the bookings have been done online. Colleges are opening tomorrow but the communication we got from most students is that they’re planning to come by the 25th so the property will be ready by 21. If they come before the rooms are ready, we will put them up in alternate accommodation of ours till then,” said Shivam, residence captain at the managed student accommodation provider, which has 29 properties at North Campus.

Many parents also preferred coming to the capital themselves to look for suitable accommodation for their children, who are coming to campus for the first time since they joined the university. A father of a second-year student of Ramjas College said his wife had arrived a few days back to “survey” options in the area before they decided on the Nivedita Kunj PG on Wednesday and moved their daughter in. “They show something online, and in reality, it’s something else. The rates are not cheap but we want our daughter to have all facilities, safety and proximity to the college,” he said.

At the student hub of Vijay Nagar, Harish Sharma of Jolly Properties — one of the prominent broker services in the area — said most properties are booked. “I have no properties available anymore. Queries started pouring in from February 10 and I showed photos and videos of flats to students. There has also been a race among brokers and four flats have been booked through me… One thing is that landlords are not willing to rent out to third-year students since they’ll be completing college in just three months,” he said.

With pre-bookings having started from as long as a year ago, the Seven Sisters PG start-up — for students from the North East — has more than 100 of its 130 beds booked. “Today itself, some six students have moved in since morning and we’re rushing to make sure that everything is ready for them. We’re constantly getting queries but we’re almost out of space, there’s too much of a rush,” said Suwodi Suria Borah, a member of the team.

The rush for accommodation and the revival of activity in the area has meant better business for others whose livelihoods revolve around students as well.

Shawarma Wala, a popular rolls joint at Kamla Nagar, had shut down its seating area because business had dried up during the pandemic but it reopened around 25 days ago anticipating that the university would open. “With people coming to see PGs, we’ve had a lot more business in the last 3-4 days. Things are already looking better,” the owner said.

Amar Singh, who has been riding a rickshaw in the area for 20 years, said the influx of students in the last week has meant that his daily earnings have gone up from the low of Rs 250-300 to more than Rs 500.