A portion of women's hostel of Berhampur university collapses

A portion of a women's hostel in Berhampur University campus here collapsed on Thursday, but no one was hurt, officials said.

A portion of one of the bathing complexes of the building along with a water tank of about 1,000 litre capacity suddenly collapsed, said Registrar of the university, Ranjan Kumar Biswal.

However, nobody was hurt as almost all the inmates of the 30-year-old hostel 'Saberi' were in their classes at the time of the mishap, he said.

Following the incident, the university authorities shifted all the 111 inmates of the 'Saberi' hostel to 'Chilika', a newly constructed women's hostel as a safety measure, the registrar said.

In Saberi, mostly third and fourth semester post- graduate students were housed, the registrar said adding the reason of the incident is yet to be ascertained.

The Registrar along with other officers, including post-graduate council chairperson, hostel warden rushed to the hostel after getting information about the incident.

The two-storey hostel building was not declared unsafe by the engineers of the Road and Building (R&B) department, he said.

"We have repaired almost all hostels of the university, including Saberi, during the summer vacation after vacating the hostel inmates. There was no major complaint from the hostel inmates about the building, said hostel Warden, Bhagirathi Panigrahy.