Now that the Maharashtra government has given the green light for colleges across the state to start from October 20, city colleges await clarity from the Mumbai University (MU) on what needs to be done. Colleges say they require guidelines from MU at the earliest to prepare for safe reopening, as it will take some time to make the required arrangements.

The state higher and technical education minister announced reopening of colleges on Wednesday and said that final decision and area-specific standard operating procedures (SoPs) would be declared by individual universities along with local civic bodies. In Mumbai, this will be decided by Mumbai University and BMC. Learning from previous experience, when schools were allowed to reopen in urban areas, colleges fear that they not get much time to make arrangements.