GUJRAT, Oct 12 Excessive admissions to different departments of the University of Gujrat have created transport problems for the students as they have to wait for hours for university buses to arrive at the campus and then leave for homes.

The university admitted two weeks ago around 2,500 students to graduate and degree programmes of the School of Art and Design, faculties of basic sciences, CSIT, engineering and technology, languages and humanities and social sciences, School of Law, Department of Mass Com and Media and the School of Business and Management Sciences. The university, however, failed to arrange adequate transport to cope with such a huge influx of students, sources say. Prior to new admissions, the number of university students was 3,500.

The campus of the Gujrat University is situated in the Hafiz Hayat locality, 20 kilometers from the Gujrat city. The university busses ply different routes across Jhelum, Gujranwala and Gujrat districts to pick and drop the students. Talking to Dawn, a number of students said they had to wait for hours to be picked up by the university busses and then again had to wait for two to three hours at the campus to get on vehicles to reach home. The university has two hostels, one for women and another for men, which could hardly accommodate around 500 students.

Students say the university charges them Rs3,150 per head per semester for the transport facility. But they pass through the agony of waiting for hours to reach or leave the campus. They said the university had better arranged a good fleet of buses before admitting them.

A student said the traveling agony had taken its toll on his studies as it had become very difficult for him to concentrate on the syllabus after a hectic day at the university and then arriving at home after a troublesome journey. Seeing the delayed arrival of buses, many students use public buses. Sources said the university administration admitted such a big number of students due to political pressure.

Akram Bhatti, the university registrar, said the administration was aware of the problems being faced by the students, adding that the situation would be improved in next two months when five new busses would be added to the 22-bus fleet of the university.

He said there were even complaints of the shortage of classrooms but the administration had managed it quite well. He said with the completion of the construction of new academic blocks, the shortage of classrooms would also be overcome.

He said admissions had been carried out after the approval of the university syndicate.