One of the most prestigious business schools in the country, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) unveiled its campus infrastructure plan for the next 25 years on Tuesday without compromising green cover.
The master plan includes increase in number of dormes to accommodate more number of students, new housing facilities. The IIM-A authority is planning to utilise the existing land parcel and the new facilities will be developed without replacing its original iconic building, which has heritage value.
“New buildings include a new academic block, the Jindal School of Public Policy, apartments for the faculty and dormitories for students. Besides a brand new sports complex including the IIFl Swimming Pool will complement the existing iconic architecture of IIM-A,” said Boby Desai, Director of Design at a press conference at IIM-A campus.
The IIM-A campus is one of the few green lounges left within the city, he said adding, “green cover will in fact increase when we implement the master plan over the period of next two and half decades. The idea is to use the available space intelligently.”
Speaking at the conference IIM-A director Ashish Nanda said that the institute has appointed three architects for five new projects. The architecture firms include RMA Architect for the School of Public Policy, Arcop for faculty and student housing and HCP for the new academic block and the sports complex, said Nanda.
According to him, these five projects are the first phase of a multi-year plan for increasing the capacity and renewing the IIM-A campus, while maintaining its unique character.
The Jindal School of Public Policy will be a multi-storey structure, including several classrooms and faculty offices. Rahul Mehrotra, Founder Principal of RMA Architects and Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, will lead the design of the Jindal School of Public Policy.
JSW which is in to steel, power, cement and port infrastructure business has pledged a contribution of Rs 85 crore towards developing this school. According to Shri Sandeep Gokhle, President of JSW Group, Rs 25 crore has been earmarked for the building and support infrastructure.
"As part of our efforts towards furthering greater interface between Indian industry and academia, we have consistently been cognizant of the need to establish a durable mechanism to facilitate constructive interaction among Government, regulatory agencies, academia, and industry participants in the development of policies affecting our economic environment, and our society at large," said the IIMA director.
The multi-storeyed modern apartment buildings of faculty housing and students housing will be designed by the Montreal based Arcop group. The student housing facility will offer single-occupancy rooms for student accommodation within the context of a modern building.
According to Nanda, the IIM has 90 faculties while sanctioned number of faculty is 120. To attract good faculty, it is important that IIMA provide good housing facility within the campus, he added.
The new academic block and sports facility will be designed by HCP facing the existing academic block in the new campus. It will have several classrooms, faculty offices, and administrative offices. The sports complex will include an Olympic-sized swimming pool contributed by IIFl, whose chairman is IIMA alumnus Nirmal Jain. The complex will also include squash courts, badminton courts, gymnasium, an athletics track, and other ancillary facilities.