Bring closed campuses back to life

After 18 months of closure, what should a service provider do before an educational institution welcomes students and staff back on campus? Tirumala Rau K, CEO, KVR Best Property Management Pvt Ltd (KBPMPL) writes.

Since campuses had been closed for almost one-and-a-half years, a lot of changes had taken place in the facilities. Before we resumed services, we spent time assessing the present state of all the assets. In many cases, there was damage to the infrastructure, which needed to be repaired. It took a few days to bring schools and college buildings back to normal.

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Deep cleaning is the most important aspect of housekeeping when it comes to helping closed facilities reopen after a long period. For smaller areas, we use single disc scrubbers. Male and female toilets were brought back to normalcy with tools. Wherever stains were visible, we used descalers too.

Since many schools under our purview have centralised air conditioning systems, our engineering teams started working on restoring the operations of the HVAC system. After 18 months of no use, the work was double that of pre-pandemic times. Spraying disinfectant in the system is a new feature of HVAC maintenance.

We also did a thorough deep cleaning of the canteens and cooking areas. Anti-bacterial sprays delivered through ULV guns are used in classrooms half an hour before every class as a routine measure. It spreads more evenly. In washrooms, apart from regular cleaning, we also use antibacterial liquid for disinfection every six hours.

Diseases spread very easily among children; we cannot afford to let down our guard.