Ahead of the upcoming academic secession 2025-26, the district administration has released new guidelines for coaching centres and hostels under the Kota Cares Campaign, officials said on Tuesday.

The aim of the campaign is to reduce the cost of living for the students coming to Kota to prepare for the competitive exams.

The key features of the new guidelines include the elimination of security and caution money in all the 4,000 hostels in the city. Earlier, the hostels would charge the amount and refund it by the end of the year.

Following a meeting with the stakeholders of the coaching industry, Kota District Collector Dr Ravindra Goswami announced that hostels can charge of maintenance fee of Rs 2,000. They will also be provided with anti-suicide ceiling fans and mandatory gatekeeper training for hostel staff, the statement said.

The students will be provided free entry to Chambal Riverfront and Oxygen Zone Park on a one-time pass basis. A Kota Cares helpdesk will be set up at the railway station and bus stand, and functional CCTV and biometric systems will be installed in the hostels, the statement read.

The hostel staff will be required to maintain manual attendance at night. The accommodation will have recreation areas and parents will be provided with receipts of all payments.

Dr. Goswami said, “Under the Kota Cares campaign, efforts are being made to provide students with better facilities and an improved environment. With the growing number of students in Kota, excellent infrastructure has been developed. Better accommodations and care facilities can now be offered to students in different areas of the city, and issues that previously existed have been resolved. We are confident that students in Kota will receive the best coaching along with excellent housing and an ideal environment.”

This comes as the number of students coming to Kota for the preparation of competitive exams saw a sharp decline from over 2 lakh to over 1.24 lakh in 2024-25. This caused a revenue loss of around 50 per cent, leaving many hostels with less than 40 per cent occupancy.

Vishwanath Sharma, Sunil Agarwal and Naveen Mittal from the Hostel Association said, “Hostels and PGs will now establish new standards for student care. We will ensure that all required standards are met, and we will work in collaboration with the district administration and coaching institutes.”

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