Hyderabad: Hostel managements keep fingers crossed

Kukatpally: It has been almost 8 months since the Covid outbreak and attendant lockdown, but hostels still remain deserted. Many which struggled to sustain all these months are losing hopes and some have even downed their shutters while others are running huge losses.

Given the fact that students and most of the men working for IT and allied sector are yet to return to the city from native places, the hostel management are keeping their fingers crossed as the strength fell from three digits to two digits.

Several private hostels around the Kukatpally area wear a deserted look. During the lockdown, most of companies asked their employees to work from home and educational institutions adopted online methods to reach out to their students. The students who were staying earlier in hostels in Hyderabad, particularly in Kukatpally area, vacated hostels and left for their native places.

A few hostels have a few inmates, paying large amounts and owners are worried how they would keep paying huge amounts towards rent and other establishment costs. Some of them are planning to sell hostels and get into fields. "I can't bear these losses because unable to sustain and get into another profession," said one hostel owner, on condition of anonymity.

A private hostel owner, Samba Shiva Rao, said that he has been running the hostel for 12 years and there would be the strength of 375 people in hostel on an average, but now the strength is reduced to 30 students. "The business is in loss, but we don't have other options, but to stick to it," he added.

Housing sector is no better. To-let boards can be seen hanging everywhere in the colonies.

Sai kiran, a resident of Kukatpally, said that for the past five to six months several houses fell vacant.

"The tenants are moving to their native places and no one is coming forward to occupy it. Even my tenants vacated the flat about three months back and now the flat is vacant," he said.