IIT Gandhinagar organised Decennial Seminar on Campus Development to celebrate 50th meeting of its Building and Works Committee
Palaj: Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) organized the 50th meeting of the Building and Works Committee of the Institute – the Committee which has steered the campus development activities of IITGN. As an interesting coincidence, this meeting took place in the 10th year of IIT Gandhinagar’s existence. To celebrate this significant achievement, the Institute organised a ‘Decennial Seminar on Campus Development’ on 18th April 2019 at IITGN campus to reflect on the collaborative journey of the development of IITGN campus.
Smt Usha Batra, Special Director General (WR), CPWD, Prof Neelkanth Chhaya, Former Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad, Shri Vinod Gupta, Masterplan Architect for the IITGN campus, Prof Sudhir Jain, Director, IITGN and other stakeholders of Building and Works Committee (BWC) from CPWD and IITGN graced the occasion.
Prof Gaurav Srivastava, Dean, Campus Development welcomed all the guests and gave context of this seminar. Prof Neelkanth Chhaya recalled how this campus came about, planning that went behind building this campus on an arid land next to the Sabarmati River, dedication of IITGN and CPWD to execute and complete such a master plan in a short span of time and the democratic nature of all the BWC meetings held for IITGN campus development.
Smt Usha Batra congratulated IITGN on completion of 10 years and for successfully shining nationally and globally for its unique initiatives. She gave a brief introduction to work done so far and in progress at the campus. Referring to the workers welfare initiative and adoption of Confined Masonry (CM) building technology by IITGN, she told the Institute has set example for future buildings projects.
Dr Vinod Gupta remembered the process, thinking and challenges behind designing the IITGN campus on Sabarmati. He expressed joy that lot of things that have been thought have happened here.
Prof Sudhir Jain expressed his happiness on the occasion and shared the initial apprehensions he had on campus construction and the strong commitment of the BWC to successfully build this campus. He attributed this campus development to a large team effort. He thanked all the stakeholders and asked them to remain engaged with the institute in some or the other way.
Other participants of the BWC from CPWD and IITGN shared anecdotes of their experience through talk and poetry recitation. Key contributors were felicitated by IITGN on this occasion.
After the seminar, IITGN also formally inaugurated the two main gates: Gate 1 and Gate 2 of the Institute.
The campus of IITGN has received widespread appreciation and several accolades owing to the meticulous planning and execution. This involved dedicated engagement and significant involvement of various stakeholders (Building and Works Committee members, architects, CPWD engineers, contractors, and its own faculty, staff and students).