Repair of hostels, libraries expedited, will be done by March 2023: JNU VC

NEW DELHI: A day after Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students took to social media to complain about dripping hostel roofs and flooded corridors, Vice-Chancellor (V-C) Santishree D Pandit on Monday said repair work of hostels and libraries has been expedited and will be completed by next March.

Pandit said the university has received the first instalment of the funds it requested from the University Grants Commission (UGC) for infrastructure improvement, and priority is being given to hostel and library repair work.

She held a meeting with officials of the building and works committee, who assured her that urgent repair work would be completed within a month. The repair work has been assigned to the Central Public Works Department.

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“I have been promised by the engineering department and the CPWD that the projects that will cost no more than Rs 75 lakh will start immediately. In one month, all urgent work will be completed. And for projects costing more than Rs 75 lakhs, the tender process will start from November,” she said.

The university has received Rs 14 crore from the UGC for repair work earlier this month. The university sent a proposal to the UGC in September last year amounting to Rs 56 crore under various heads. It requested the UGC to sanction the requisite amount as a special grant to take up on priority structural repairs, and up-gradation and renovation of hostels, guest houses, academic, administrative, residential and other buildings on the campus.