IIT-B ties up with firm to get rooms for students

In a first-of-its-kind move, the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) collaborated with a start-up to provide accommodation to its PhD scholars and foreign

In a first-of-its-kind move, the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) collaborated with a start-up to provide accommodation to its PhD scholars and foreign students.

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IIT-B on Tuesday booked 80 beds with the start-up, Your Space, at the MTNL guest house in Powai, located around a kilometre away from the 550-acre campus. The institute has been hosting foreign speakers and faculty members in the guest house.

The tariffs range from ₹8,500 to ₹10,000 per month. “Students can choose between one-room units with two beds and two-room units with four beds. The charge for the rooms will be adjusted in the house rent allowance (HRA) which research scholars get in their fellowship grants. The accommodation is at a distance of around 900 metres away from campus, so students can walk to the class,” Tapanendu Kundu, dean of student affairs, told HT.

The institute currently has around 10,549 students, and can accommodate only 9,122 students in its hostels. “If we can work out the accommodation with Your Space, we may book more beds with the firm,” said Kundu.

HT contacted Venayak Saran Gupta,Your Space’s head of business development, for a comment, but he did not respond.