MUMBAI: Pieces of a chipped wall in a room at IIT-Bombay’s hostel 14 fell on a student’s bed and table on Saturday night, raising concern over safety of students in hostel rooms. The student was not on the bed at the time of the incident, escaping any “major injury”. Students claimed that the chunks were huge and sturdy with sharp edges. About two weeks ago, a similar incident was reported in Hostel 8 on the campus.The incident, which happened in room 702 of C-wing, which is also on the top floor, has prompted the maintenance council of hostel 14 to do a quick survey to understand the condition of walls in the rooms.The aging hostel buildings at the premier institute’s campus in Powai are a serious concern for students and authorities. A student from hostel 14 said the seven-storey building is comparatively new and was built less than 10 years ago. “Some rooms on the top floor have chipped walls and cracks. A similar incident on a minor scale happened last year. But to ensure that the incident does not recur, our hostel council is planning to figure out the extent of the problem,” said the student. They have to inform the council about any cracks in walls in their rooms. The institute is constructing additional rooms on the ground floor of the same hostel building for the last two to three months.An official from the institute said that the aging hostel buildings are a concern but regular maintenance is becoming difficult with the institute’s ever-increasing strength. “At any given time, at least 10% of rooms should be kept free for maintenance operations. It ensures that students can be shifted to available rooms during maintenance. But with the large number of students on campus, the institute is unable to keep those 10% rooms free... With ongoing students’ internship programmes , maintenance during vacations is difficult. Hostels 1-9 are almost 50 years old and need regular maintenance,” said the official.

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