State-of-the-art youth hostel to come up for foreign students

The state is set to construct a youth hostel of "international standard" in South Kolkata. The International Youth Hostel, whose idea was conceived by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to cater to students, mainly from foreign countries, who come here for studies but have no place to stay, will come up on around 26 acre of land near Moore Avenue.

The state-of-the-art youth hostel will be the first of its kind with accommodation facilities for around 300 people at a time. The ten-plus storey youth hostel will be having rooms of various sizes.

The unique feature of the hostel is that there will be all sorts of facilities, which are needed for a youth hostel to function, will be available under one roof. There will be a huge lounge where the boarders, mainly students from abroad and other parts of the country, can sit, wait and relax. There will be a cafeteria and food courts where all sorts of foods will be available.

Moreover, in the youth hostels in the country at present, there is no concept of allocating a separate space where boarders can play, exercise or at least go for morning or evening walk. Mainly students, job aspirants and sportsmen opt to stay in youth hostels, thus it was decided to create a space where they could have some physical exercise.

Keeping the same in mind, there will be badminton courts and enough green space in this hostel for boarders to do physical exercises, said an official of the state Youth Services and Sports department. Moreover, many students take interest in different indoor games and there will also be facilities for the same in the hostel.

There will be a separate zone in the International Youth Hostel where boarders can use all sorts of modern electrical gadgets and the entire hostel will be a Wi-Fi zone.

Sources said that consultants have been engaged to prepare plans for the youth hostel. Two to three plans have already been submitted and now, the task is to finalise which plan will be selected to set up the youth hostel.

It may be mentioned that the Mamata Banerjee government had decided to renovate the existing youth hostels and to set up 23 new ones. Repairing work in the 19 existing ones is complete and renovation in the hostel in Mython is ongoing.

The official said that the International Youth Hostel is one of the 23 proposed new hostels of the state government. But, the international one will be one-of-its kind with accommodation of around 300 people, while the rest new youth hostels will be having accommodation for around 100 or a few more than that.

The plan to set up the youth hostel was taken after the visit of a large number of students from China and another country to attend a programme in Kolkata.

The official said the plan was mooted so that students, even if in large number, turn up to the city could be accommodated in the youth hostels itself.