Overlooking the Vihar Lake, the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) in Mumbai offers a picturesque view. However, the view is now slowly being marred by the new architecture that’s coming up within the campus. The institute will have a new academic cum library complex nearly twice the size of the existing one and a 15-floor hostel. This is possibly one of the first sky-scraper hostel in a b-school in India.

The new structures were to be ready by June 2012 but the same would now be ready for use only by 2013. This was confirmed to us by an official from NITIE who did not wish to be named. Another first-year student pursuing Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial Management PaGaLGuY spoke to said: “We are hoping to move in the academic block in a few months’ time but not very sure about the hostel.”

A view of the new academic block

NITIE has listed these plans under the ‘Future Plans’ tab on their website as well. Built in 1966, the institute building reportedly needed a lot of maintenance, which is when the management decided to build a new one. Though, rumours are also rife that the old hostel buildings would be demolished, there is no official confirmation yet.

The new six-floor academic block will have more classrooms, a mini auditorium, a project room, a placement library, a digital library, the main library, an exhibition room, a faculty room and a stage. “The new academic block will have more classrooms as compared to the old one, so during placements if the classrooms are occupied, shifting of lectures of regular classes would not happen,” said a NITIE student on condition of anonymity. He also said that the new classrooms would also be more spacious than the old ones.

According to the proposed plan, the existing built-up area of the academic block is 70730.24 sq ft, while the new academic block would be spread across 1,37,059 sq ft. The decision to construct a new academic block was taken when in 2004, M/s Epicon Consultants in suggested major structural strengthening work for the old buildings.

The hostel building under construction

The huge 15-floor hostel building will come up in an area of 147304.114 sq ft. According to the proposed plan, the first floor will have the kitchen, dining area, store room, gymnasium and television room. The 9th floor will have few rooms and a refuge area. All rooms will have double occupancy and each floor will have 26 rooms. The ground floor would be reserved for parking, store and warden room. There will be four lifts in the building. The total capacity to provide accommodation to students will be 764. “As of now the decision of giving accommodation in the new hostel open for only male students,” said an official from NITIE. He further said that the new hostel wing will have modern amenities and will be more spacious as compared to the old ones.

“Currently there are five hostel blocks, each of which are two storeyed. They all are as old as the institute. During monsoon, it gets troublesome for hostel block three and four as there is leakage problem. However, the new hostel building will surely be of great relief to many students on campus,” said a student in NITIE who did not wish to be named. He also said that latest infrastructure on campus will surely raise the morale of students and NITIE aspirants as it is one of the most important criteria that students look forward to while applying to b-schools.

“The court order in 2009 on reservation, had indeed put pressure on the existing infrastructure as after the order the seats nearly doubled and single occupancy rooms in hostel were changed to accommodate two students per room. The new hostel and academic block is what all the NITIE students are awaiting positively,” the student added.

Inputs by Bansi Mehta and Shashank Venkat