DHARWAD: The Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay (IIT-B), the mentor team for Dharwad IIT, has asked the state government to expedite renovation work of IIT transit campus at the Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI) and hand it over to it at the earliest.
Going by the deliberations of the high-level meeting chaired by Additional Chief Secretary to the Higher Education Department Bharatlal Meena in Bengaluru recently, it was clear that arrangements need to be made for starting academic activities of IIT Dharwad on the WALMI transit campus.
Meena had directed the district administration to provide necessary facilities on the transit campus at the earliest.
Shiva Prasad who represents IIT-Bombay, expressed helplessness over starting academic activities from this June if the required facilities are not provided early. Hence as per the technical committee’s demand, the WALMI building should be handed over temporarily to facilitate academic activities, he said.
A temporary building to run classes, office building, hostels for students and staff are urgent requirements, he noted.
WALMI director Patil readily agreed to hand over half of the administrative building on the ground floor and 8-10 classrooms, but expressed helplessness on handing over hostels, which are needed to accommodate farmers and officials who visit WALMI, it is said.
The meeting also discussed utilising hostel facilities available with the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) and Karnatak University for those who visit WALMI for training purposes, besides holding talks with the Water Board for getting drinking water from Malaprbha river.