After 40 years standing, the buildings housing classrooms, labs, and workshops, and the hostels are showing wear, tear and an extreme level of deterioration that is a direct consequence of Mumbai’s harsh weather and the poor building standards employed at IITB decades ago. A lack of funding for maintenance and ordinary renovation has added to the rate of deterioration.

IITB is a City

As much a small city as it is a university, IITB provides housing to virtually all faculty and many staff and their immediate families. Along with the advantage of having a self-contained campus, comes the complexity of administering every detail of day-to-day operation and maintenance of the places of work, residences and service facilities for 20,000 people. Virtually all of the structures built in the early days of IITB, along with the supporting roads and service facilities, are rapidly deteriorating, with many already in a poor state of condition. These provide the majority of residential, research and academic space. Many are in urgent need of renovation to preserve their usefulness and maintain structural integrity, with some already beyond the point where renovation is feasible. While the structural condition of many buildings has deteriorated the living, working and teaching conditions within those buildings has deteriorated as well.

Life in the Hostels

In the hostels, space has become critical as enrolment has increased, rooms have deteriorated into crumbling shells, lavatories are intolerable, landscape and building appearance is poor, food storage and service areas are inadequate, and there are no health standards to safeguard students who must eat and live in these substandard conditions. In the past few years, alumni have become alert to these circumstances and have contributed to renovation of the common area of Hostels 4, 7, 8 and 10. In addition, Nandan Nilekani (EE '78) has donated funding for a new hostel. Once completed, Hostels 12 and 13 will house 1, 072 students. However, this leaves seven hostels untouched, but even the recent renovation has affected only the food preparation, service and storage areas, dining areas and lounges. Student rooms and lavatories remain in poor condition.

Future Needs

Meeting world-class standards at IITB will mean, at a minimum renovation of old buildings and constructing new building to provide basic standards of structural integrity and safety, and provide clean usable hostels, classrooms, labs, offices and faculty living quarters.

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