Delhi University has approved hostel projects worth Rs 5,889 crore that are expected to add accommodation for 21,895 students, offering a major expansion of campus housing as thousands of outstation students continue to depend on private paying guest accommodation in Delhi.
The plan, cleared by the university’s Executive Council at a meeting chaired by Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh, includes new hostels estimated to cost Rs 4,027 crore and provide 15,758 beds. A further Rs 1,862 crore has been approved for reconstructing two existing hostels, with capacity for another 6,137 students, according to a Times of India report.
The proposed construction will include additional multistorey hostel buildings at DU’s Dhaka Complex. The university has also approved the reconstruction of Jubilee Hall and PG Men’s Hostel. New boys’ and girls’ hostels are planned at Veer Savarkar College in Roshanpura, Najafgarh, while separate facilities for men and women are proposed at DU’s West Campus in Dwarka, Najafgarh, and East Campus in Surajmal Vihar, Karkardooma.
The Executive Council has urged colleges to prepare hostel proposals on their campuses and submit them to the funding agency. The university’s plans come as available accommodation remains far below student demand. DU has 91 colleges, of which 69 colleges and departments participated in undergraduate admissions in 2026. Around 71,600 students were admitted to undergraduate courses in 2026-27, while college estimates indicate that about half of the university’s students come from outside Delhi.
According to university officials cited in the report, DU has 20 main hostels across its North and South campuses. Another 20 colleges have hostel facilities, but 71 colleges do not, leaving many students to seek private accommodation close to college clusters. The university has only around 7,000 hostel seats available against tens of thousands of new undergraduate admissions each year.
The scale of the current shortage is also reflected in earlier official figures. In a written reply to a Rajya Sabha question in November 2016, the Union human resource development ministry said DU had 19 hostels with a combined capacity of 3,580 students. The latest expansion plan would significantly increase the university’s formal residential capacity if all the approved projects are completed.
The proposed hostel blocks are expected to include dining halls, shops, common rooms, reading rooms and residences for wardens. With vacant land limited within the university, each block will be designed to make maximum use of the floor area ratio permitted on its campus.
Singh said the buildings had been designed around 21st-century requirements and that the university was planning with the next 100 years in view. He also said the names of the existing hostels would not be changed after reconstruction. The next steps involve colleges preparing detailed proposals and submitting them to the funding agency for the planned facilities.
