In a 1st, IIT-Bombay alumni to plan & build hostel on campus, will raise Rs 135 crore – Times of India

MUMBAI: IIT-Bombay’s alumni will be launching a drive to raise Rs 120-135 crore to design and build a world-class hostel complex with 1,000-1,500 rooms. The institute has collaborated with its alumni organisations — IIT-B Alumni Association (IITBAA) and IIT-B Heritage Foundation — for the hostel that will replace hostels 7 and 8 and have a separate wing for the increasing numbers of girl students on campus.
In the past two decades, the student strength has grown almost four times and infrastructural constraints have been a concern. The challenge is made harder by the limited funding available to the institute and the fact that many of the hostels are old and face structural issues, said the institute’s statement. Revamping older hostels and building new ones have become a necessity, and so the institute reached out to its alumni. The proposed hostel will be closer to Powai lake.
For the first time on an Indian campus, the alumni will not only raise funds, but also take lead roles in project planning and implementation. An MoU was signed by the institute and the alumni organisations.
The alumni have been supporting the institute on various projects. Recently, around 170 residents of hostel 5 donated around Rs 5.5 crore for its upgradation. Last year, when the pandemic set in, around Rs 2.5 crore was raised by the US-based alumni to provide laptops and broadband services to needy students. In 2020-21, around Rs 80 crore donation was received by the institute from its corporates and alumni networks.
Sudhir Nikam, a resident of hospital 7 from the class of 1993, said: “Thousands of alumni have called H7, H8, H10 and H11 their home. We plan to reach out to all of them.”
Director Subhasis Chaudhuri said the institute is grateful to their alumni for taking the stewardship role in building the new hostel complex, which is the need of the hour.