Boasting facilities such as a gym, laundry, vending machines, doctor on call, transport for the college commute, high-speed Wi-Fi and fully furnished rooms, high-end paying guest accommodations near the North Campus of Delhi University are pulling out all the stops to woo those hunting for accommodation.
Ranging from ₹20,000 to ₹22,000 a month for a single bed in a twin- or triple-bedroom apartment, these PGs have become an attraction for students looking to make Delhi their home during three-year undergraduate programme.
One of these PGs, Oxfordcaps, has a cafe-like dining area within the property. In their newly-built girls' PG in Malka Ganj, they provide students with a medical insurance of ₹50,000. Students Inn, a PG for girls in Kamla Nagar, has an e-rickshaw facility that drops students off at their colleges in the morning. Besides, many of them also conduct cultural nights and other workshops giving students networking opportunities.
Biometric system
To ensure security, most of them have a biometric check-in and check-out system. In Stanza Living, a PG in Hudson Lane, if students don’t check in at the curfew time then their parents are informed.
“Unless you have a blanket approval, every time someone takes a night out or is late, parents are informed,” says Anvita Meena, who lives in one of the PGs.
Stanza Living has an app through which students can apply for a ‘night out’ and give their feedback. The curfew timings are between 9 p.m.-10.30 p.m. Although curfews exist in all the PGs, they are more strictly enforced in the girls' PGs. The Stanza Living boys' PG, for example, does not have a curfew. Most of these PGs also have CCTV coverage of the entire property.
Shradha Prajapati, an employee at Oxfordcaps, says, “We publicise mostly during college events, like fests in Hindu College and Hansraj College, and have a strong online presence. We promote our PGs on Facebook and Instagram to attract freshers.”
Students living in these accommodations feel that being new to the city, the luxuries help them settle down and they move out to flats or apartments in their second and third year which don’t have the ki nd of CCTV surveillance and strict rules that the PGs have.
