IIT Bhubaneswar to take over the multi-lakh sq ft Toshali Bhawan?
June 26th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a 2005 report in Hindu.
Toshali Plaza mansion, constructed by the Orissa Housing Development Corporation in 1998 over an area of 3.19 lakh square feet at a cost of Rs 15.65 crore, resembles a deserted palace in a posh locality of Bhubaneswar. The unoccupied mansion has more than 2 lakh square feet of office space.
A page linked from the IIT Bhubaneswar home page (click on Facilities) mentions that some classes will be held in Toshali Plaza this year and the boys hostel will be 5 minutes from it.
The tender at http://www.iitbbs.ac.in/pdf/tender/RFP_Toshali_Satellite.pdf for installing networking and wi-fi in Toshali Bhawan (earlier called as Toshali Plaza) refers to it as a satellite campus. It also gives the floor diagram of the first four floors.
Finally the article https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/4801 on progress of the new IITs says the following:
IIT Bhubaneswar: .. claims to be the first IIT out of the eight new IITs to be operating on its own infrastructure. "This is partially our own campus and we are the only IIT to be operating out of our own campus. Even after we move out to our permanent campus at Arugul, this building will continue to be our city centre.
Does this mean that IIT Bhubaneswar has bought or taken a very long term lease on Toshali Bhawan? That is my guess.
I guess they are or will be renovating it and it will look much prettier than the above picture. However, the picture gives an idea on how big that complex is. 3.19 lakh sq feet is huge. That is 29,636 sq meter. As a comparison the size of the planned academic township of NISER Bhubaneswar is 65,000 sq meter. Similarly the size of the planned academic complex of IISER Pune is 34000 sq meters. Thus IIT Bhubaneswar will have plenty of space to grow and hire more faculty until its main campus is ready in Argul.
Toshali Bhawan is also located centrally in Bhubaneswar; only about 2 kms from the Bhubaneswar station. It is four hundred meters from the Forum mall (the first mall of Bhubaneswar; with a Pizza Hut and many other eating places) and fairly close (about 3 kms) to the SBI colony where some of the student and the faculty housing are.
If indeed IIT Bhubaneswar was able to buy this huge complex, besides the current Director (Prof. Chakraborty) and Registrar (Mr. Ray) one must also thank Prof. Damodar Acharya who most likely (my speculation) saved IIT Bhubaneswar tons of money by having the first year classes in Kharagpur at almost zero cost to IIT Bhubaneswar. Also, the second year classes were partly held in the IIT Kharagpur extension center in Bhubaneswar, possibly at a low rent.Those savings may have played a big role in this purchase. All those savings plus the projected rental cost until the main campus is ready probably covers the cost of buying and renovating Toshali Bhawan. Kudos to IIT Bhubaneswar Director and Registrar for this financial and real estate masterstroke.
Down the road, after IIT Bhubaneswar has its main campus ready, this satellite campus in the middle of the city would be very useful in being the venue for offering graduate courses and short courses.
Entry Filed under: Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Puri- Khurda area (1),IIT Bhubaneswar,IITs, IISc, IISERs, NISER, IIMs