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The Indian Institute of Technology (IITB) is as much a small
city as it is a university. On the grounds of the heavily
forested campus reside over 20,000 people, a population
that includes the 4,000 resident students living in hostels.
The families of virtually all faculty and many of IITB's
various staff live on campus in housing provided by IITB,
they use IITB maintained roads and services, and so on.
IITB even has its own school for children, a hospital, small
stores for shopping and maintains other amenities normally
found in any small city. Along with the advantage of having
a self-contained campus, comes the complexity of
administering a small city.
At IITB all the infrastructure of the “city” in every sense and
detail is owned and operated by the administrators and
faculty of IITB. In addition, all the trials of meeting the
needs of IITB's resident population, along with the needs of
students, rests on the shoulders of IITB administrators.
This is a considerable burden, but complicating day-to-day
operation and maintenance of this city called IITB is the
poor condition of many of the buildings. Structures that
provide residential and academic space, roads and service
facilities are all rapidly deteriorating, with many in poor
states of condition.
Many buildings were constructed over forty years ago, and
all structures have been subjected to Bombay's harsh
weather, now combined with the chemical air pollutants of
the densely populated city. A lack of funding for
maintenance and ordinary renovation has added to the rate
of deterioration.
Numerous structures are in urgent need of renovation to
preserve their usefulness and maintain structural integrity.
Unfortunately, many have passed the point where
renovation is economically viable or even possible. For those
structures, the only alternative is demolition and
constructing new structures to today’s standards in their
place.
While the condition of many of the structures has
deteriorated, the living conditions within those structures
has deteriorated as well. Conditions for many faculty and
staff in academic areas, classrooms, laboratories and office
spaces are not satisfactory. Notions of meeting world-class
standards is instantly dashed by the condition of many
buildings currently in use as primary class, lab office and
living space at IITB. Meeting world-class standards will
mean, at a minimum meeting basic standards of structural
integrity and safety in buildings, providing a safe and
dependable power supply, having clean usable classrooms,
labs, offices and living quarters, and preserving available
land for future growth.
New structures are seen under construction on the
sprawling campus. Some renovation is also underway in a
few locations. The new structures are being built to high
standards and renovations are making a big impact on
academic, research and living conditions. Continued
progress in this area is critical in IITB’s pursuit of world-class
recognition.
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