IIEST, Shibpur, has decided to keep three departments close till April 11 after some teachers attached to them tested positive for Covid-19, an official of the institute said.

The acting registrar of the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST) said arrangements could be made for the sanitisation of the civil engineering, physics and architecture, town and regional planning departments, which will remain closed till Sunday.

Classes at the Shibpur institute are being held online but the teachers are visiting the campus to oversee research. Scholars pursuing research have returned to the campus in phases.

The Centre in its Unlock-V directive issued last year had said higher education institutions could reopen from October 15 for research scholars and postgraduate students in technology and science streams requiring laboratory/experimental work.

“At least three teachers tested positive, leading to the closure of the departments. We will assess the situation post-sanitisation and decide on reopening. The affected teachers are in home isolation,” said an official of the institute.

“We will ask the research scholars who came in contact with the three teachers to undergo the confirmatory test for Covid.”

The detection of cases is set to disrupt the institute’s decision to bring back to the campus final semester postgraduate students from mid-April, another official of the institute said.

The IIEST senate, the highest academic body of the institute, had decided last month to call back the 370-odd outgoing postgraduate students to the campus in a phased manner so they could have some hands-on training.

Practical classes have not been held at the institute since the campus shut down in March last year as a precaution against Covid.

When asked whether it would be proper to ask students to return to the campus at a time Covid cases are surging across the country, IIEST director Parthasarathi Chakrabarti said: “We have called an emergency meeting of the senate on Wednesday to decide on this. It seems bringing back the postgraduate students now would not be safe. Let the members of the senate share their opinions.”

The senate will also take a call on whether the supplementary exams will be held online. The institute had earlier decided to conduct the exams, scheduled from May 5, on the campus.

Metro reported on Tuesday that Calcutta University would not reopen its campuses for practical classes at the postgraduate level this semester.