Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, shuts classes amid coronavirus outbreak, asks students to vacate hostel by March 17

Institute director Dheeraj Sanghi says classes will remain suspended till April 13 tentatively and the semester will be extended to compensate for the shortfall in lectures

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Engineering College (PEC), a deemed to be university, here on Saturday suspended all classes as a precautionary measure amid the coronavirus outbreak and asked students to vacate hostels on the campus by Monday.

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In an email to the students, the institute’s director, Dheeraj Sanghi, said that classes will remain closed till April 13 and the semester will be extended to compensate for the academic shortfall.

He said, “All classes are suspended with immediate effect for an indefinite period. We will be reviewing the situation regularly and announce the opening date when it is relatively safer to do so. As of now, we believe that it may be possible to restart classes on April 13 but we hope we can do it earlier. The semester will be extended by as many days as duration of suspension of classes.”

“All students are to vacate hostels within 72 hours, that is, by Tuesday noon, March 17,” the director said.

However, MTech and PhD students and international students will be allowed to stay back. “The only exception to this will be second year MTech students, PhD students and those whose homes are outside India. If anyone else has a pressing reason to stay in the hostel, they may contact the dean of students affairs for the same. The institute remains open, and access to its labs to these students will continue as of now,” the director added.

For the students undergoing internship, the institute advised them to follow guidelines of the host organisations.