New IIT Dharwad director faces tough challenges

  • | Tuesday | 10th January, 2017

Dharwad: Even as the Indian Institute of Technology Dharwad (IIT Dharwad), which was established with much fanfare in July 2016, is yet to be fully equipped with basic facilities, the government has appointed Professor P Sheshu of IIT Mumbai as the full-time director of the new institution. He is expected to take charge in the first week of February.Sheshu will have his task cut out to put IIT Dharwad on firm footing. The pace of work on infrastructure development to facilitate the second batch has been pathetically slow. An expert in design engineering, he has to shape the premier institution in Dharwad. As of now, there is only one feeder from the rural area which provides power to the IIT.

Dharwad: Even as the Indian Institute of Technology Dharwad (IIT Dharwad), which was established with much fanfare in July 2016, is yet to be fully equipped with basic facilities, the government has appointed Professor P Sheshu of IIT Mumbai as the full-time director of the new institution. He is expected to take charge in the first week of February.Sheshu will have his task cut out to put IIT Dharwad on firm footing. The pace of work on infrastructure development to facilitate the second batch has been pathetically slow. There is a need to construct two more floors on the main Water and Land Management Institute (Walmi) building, where the transit campus is located, to house classrooms and laboratories, a building for hostel to accommodate the second batch of students and ensure adequate supply of water and electricity.These are essential because the construction of new campus will take a minimum of five years to be completed if the work goes on at a faster pace.The Walmi, which trains farmers in management of water and land, does not have proper arrangement for safe drinking water supply. The campus does not have connection to get Malaprabha water which is supplied to the twin cities. Water is drawn from borewells, filtered with the help of a RO (Reverse Osmosis) unit and supplied to the students and staff. Power supply will not be adequate when the new laboratories are set up. As of now, there is only one feeder from the rural area which provides power to the IIT. "There is need for one more independent feeder," said in-charge director Narayan Punekar.He said the pace of creating and infrastructure has been much slower. "For setting up an institution of IIT's stature, the ambience and place provided is not up to the mark. The pace of creating infrastructure is very slow. We are pushing things, but it is not enough. There has been undue delay in getting materials for renovation. Approval of files by various agencies/ departments is taking much time," Punekar said.As far as the work on the construction of the new campus is concerned, some steps of land acquisition and transfer of the land to IIT Society are still left, he said, adding that the construction of compound wall is in progress. However, the teaching staff has been ensuring that the academic work is not hampered due to inadequate logistic support.The 55-year-old professor of mechanical engineering, Sheshu has a BTech degree from NIT Warangal, MTech and PhD from IIT Madras. An expert in design engineering, he has to shape the premier institution in Dharwad. He will have to be proactive and aggressive to get things going at a fast pace.

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