IIT Kharagpur’s new hospital whose June inauguration has been postponed because of the pandemic is now a quarantine centre for those coming to Bengal from other states.

District administration officials are collecting samples and sending them to Midnapore Medical College and Hospital for tests, a West Midnapore district administration official said.

The first phase of the super-speciality Dr BC Roy Institute of Medical Science and Research was ready to roll with 9,200sq m spread over two floors. The hospital at Balarampur outside the campus is part of the IIT’s plans to start its own medical college.

Among those quarantined are many who had travelled to Vellore or Bangalore for treatment. Migrant workers returning to the state will be quarantined at the hospital.

“District magistrate Rashmi Kamal got in touch with IIT director Virendra Kumar Tewari to use the facility,” Bhrigu Nath Singh, the IIT registrar, told Metro on Wednesday.

Close to 300 people stuck at the Bengal-Odisha border were housed at the hospital. All of them have returned home after testing negative. “The hospital was well suited for quarantining them and collecting samples,” Vaibhav Chaudhary, the sub-divisional magistrate, Kharagpur, said.

Director Tewari said the hospital was “rightly being used” to serve people even before its launch.