Tirupati poised for rapid growth with IISER, IIT

Tirupati: Two institutes of national repute–IIT and IISER-under the control of Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD), several thousands of students and their activities, hundreds of faculties, exchange of laboratories, faculty, ideas and courses and all these put together present a glorious picture in Tirupati.

With the Central cabinet cleared the establishment and operationalisation of permanent campus of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) at Tirupati, its Director Prof KN Ganesh has said that the works will go in full swing soon after completing certain formalities.

He was expecting to start part of its activities from the new campus by 2019 August as the hostel works were already going on. He said that Tirupati is the only city in the country to have both IIT and IISER which can facilitate the students and faculty of both the institutes to work
together.

Revealing the details to the media here on Tuesday, the Director has said the government has formed Higher Education Funding Agency (HEFA) which was being operated by Canara Bank will provide funding.

Under the guidelines, for all the proposals approved by the government the Bank will provide money through HEFA which attracts interest also and in the case of IISER, the entire repayment will be done by the Indian government only.

“We have already started the construction of hostel building which can accommodate 750 students and very soon will go ahead with academic building as the current temporary campus has been saturated already,” Prof Ganesh maintained.

On par with all IISERs, Tirupati will also have 1.17 lakh square metres space for building the new campus among which about 40,000 square metres will be earmarked for academic space and the remaining will be for residential purpose.

The student strength has been steadily increasing in IISER Tirupati with this year the intake was 150 which will go up to 175 next year and to 200 in 2020. The present total student strength of the campus is 450 and currently the students are in fourth year and the first convocation will be held in 2020 in the new campus, he said.

Going further, he said that the institute is having 35-member faculty and another 10-15 will be joining soon to fill the ratio of 1:10 teacher-student ratio. The quality of faculty applying to work at the newly established campus in Tirupati was very high.

Regarding the new campus that has to be built at Yerpedu about 20 km from Tirupati, the Director said that, already architect was appointed, who has submitted a comprehensive master plan which will have a long-term plan for various phases in the next 20-30 years.

The new campus will have an iconic library building. IISER Tirupati will get a total of Rs 1,491.34 crore which includes Rs 1,137.16 crore towards capital expenditure and Rs 354.18 crore as recurring expenditure that consists of salaries, consumables etc., Out of capital expenditure, Rs.690 crore is meant for civil works and Rs 247 crore for equipment.

The campus will have all smart classrooms with Wi-Fi and other requirements which can facilitate sharing of lectures between any IISER campuses. “We have been going for international collaborations also and we already have signed two MoUs with the University of Newcastle, Australia and Taiwan University. From industry side, we have MoU with Amara Raja Group and having discussions with reputed pharma companies also and once we enter the new campus we can have more outreach activities,” Prof Ganesh revealed.

For the benefit of the faulty and administrative staff of both the institutes and their children, IIT has been providing space for the establishment of Kendriya Vidyalaya whereas IISER will do so for a hospital. The Dean of Faculty Prof BJ Rao and Assistant Registrar Chaman Mehta also were present.