Islamabad rents pinch students

ISLAMABAD: Students face countless problems like transportation, lack of facilities in hostels, substandard meals and above all residential problems in Islamabad. Many students living in private hostels said that due to lack proper hostel facilities, they have to live in small rooms.

It is quite difficult for students to find reasonably priced living spaces in the capital, they added.

Private hostels charge from Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 for a single bed accommodation. “I live in a small room in a private hostel with three other boys,” said Abid, a student at NUST. He said, “We pay Rs 8,000 per head to the hostel management for meals and breakfast.”

Abid said that the arrangements lack proper cleanliness, and the food was subpar. Another student, living in a single room in Sector G-8 said that he was paying Rs 8,000 for a single unfurnished room, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2011.