Several Cotton & Gauhati university hostels to be made quarantine centres

GUWAHATI: The Kamrup (Metropolitan) district administration on Monday requisitioned all six hostels of the Cotton University (CU) and two private schools in the city for accommodating inter-state passengers, who will be sent for quarantine soon after arrival.

An order by Kamrup (Metropolitan) deputy commissioner, Biswajit Pegu, said all hostels (boys and girls) of CU, along with two leading schools - Pragjyotish Senior Secondary School, West Boragaon, and St Francis D' Assisi High School, Pub Boragaon - have been requisitioned for this purpose from Monday.

It stated that requisition of the educational institutions has been done to operate Covid care and quarantine centres in connection with the containment of Covid-19 in Kamrup (Metropolitan) district that encompasses the Guwahati city areas.

A couple of private schools in the city were requisitioned for the purpose recently, but sources said in the coming days, many more educational institutions may be taken over as quarantine facilities to accommodate the growing number of arriving passengers.

Pegu said, "We already requisitioned many locations, including hotels and dharamshalas in Guwahati, where more than 6,000-7,000 people can be quarantined at a time. But due to Amphan, many trains from West Bengal, have been stranded. Tomorrow (Tuesday), we are expecting not less than 8,000 people to arrive in trains. Also, with the resumption of flights from the Guwahati airport, we are expecting at least 1,000 passengers daily who will have to be quarantined under government supervision in the city, till their health reports come. So the need for quarantine facilities has gone up."

Since it is located close to the Guwahati railway station in the heart of the city, the quarantine facility at CU may be beneficial for monitoring and was therefore chosen by the administration, sources in CU, said. "There are facilities to board about 400 students in the six hostels of the university. Though all hostel boarders have left for home already, the university administration has requested them to collect their luggage by 4 pm on May 26 (Tuesday)," a university official said.

The District Disaster Management Authority, Kamrup (Metropolitan), late on Monday evening requisitioned all boys' hotels of Gauhati University , except Venkata Rao Research Scholars Boys' Hostel (RCC-5) and Babu Jagjivan Ram Hostel, to be used as quarantine centres.