IIT-Kharagpur facilitates return of 35 students to hometown, more to follow

IIT-Kharagpur on Saturday said it arranged for the return of 35 students to their hometown in Kolkata amid the coronavirus lockdown, and plans to facilitate the journey back home for more students from next week. An institute spokesperson said at present, there are more than 5,000 students residing inside the campus and out of them, close to 700 have expressed their desire to go home.

In the first installment, IIT-Kharagpur arranged for two buses to drop 35 students to Kolkata on Thursday and Friday. Students opting to go home have been advised to stay in self-isolation for two weeks, the spokesperson said.

Talking about the initiative, Kinjal Bhattacharyya, a student at the Department of Chemistry said, "My decision to move to Kolkata was to support my parents in daily activities during this time of crisis. The institute was kind to make arrangements for medical checkups and travel in sanitied buses." Ankita Gupta, who recently reached her home at Basirhat in North 24 Parganas district, said, "... Being a first year MSc student and with my friends already away from the campus, I felt being at home would be happier though campus was safer." The majority of the students, however, have decided to stay back at the campus..

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