IIT Gandhinagar Rated Among India’s Cleanest Campuses
Gandhinagar: IIT Gandhinagar has been rated among India’s cleanest universities by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development. The Institute was ranked 4th in the category of ‘Residential University – AICTE’ in MHRD’s annual Swachh Campus Ranking 2019 for Higher Educational Institutions.
This year 6,900 public and private institutions participated in the ranking exercise, of which 48 received awards from R. Subrahmanyam, Secretary, Department of Higher Education, under various categories at the 3rd Swachhata Ranking Award Function ceremony in Delhi.
Speaking on the occasion, MHRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ said that clean and green college campuses create a healthy study ambiance, which is essential for learning by students.
The Swachh Campus rankings evaluate higher education institutions on a wide range of hygiene and environmental parameters, such as student-toilet ratio, hostel, and residential cleanliness, waste disposal, water harvesting and conservation, renewable energy use, campus greenery, etc. An external expert team undertook a physical inspection of all finalists, including IIT Gandhinagar in September.
IIT Gandhinagar Director Prof Sudhir K Jain said: “IIT Gandhinagar is designed as a world-class, smart and green campus with attractive and modern facilities that are attuned and sensitive to environmental needs. Campus ambiance is an integral component of academic excellence for which we are striving and we are delighted that our campus has been rated so highly in this year’s Swachh Campus Ranking.”
The IIT Gandhinagar campus on the banks of the River Sabarmati has won three national HUDCO design awards and was the first in the country to receive the 5-star GRIHA rating for a large development project.
IITGN is designed as a zero discharge, zero-waste campus, which treats its liquid and solid waste. Nearly 75 percent of treated sewage on campus is used as recyclable water. Water saving aerators that inject foam in sink taps in toilets reduce water consumption by 70 percent. The Institute generated more than 7 million KWh of solar energy last year, constituting almost 10% of its total energy consumption.