Thiruvananthapuram: The glass door of a room housing a state-of-the-art equipment at the central instrumentation facility of IISER-Thiruvananthap-uram has ruptured, leaving the staff and students worried about the quality of materials used. The equipment, scanning electron microscope, costs around Rs 3 crore. Sources say glass panels in several other parts of the CIF building have started showing cracks even as murmurs are heard about low quality building materials being used to construct the buildings on IISER’s Vithura campus.
A video footage showing tiles falling off the newly-built chemistry block on the campus was being circulated a couple of years ago. Recently, the campus witnessed a giant cement map of India on the courtyard being removed almost as fast as it came up. While sources vouch for the fact that it was so big it was hard to miss, IISER project engineer V.K. Siva Dutt told DC he does not know of any such map. “Perhaps the Central Public Works Department was making it,” he said. When asked about the breaking of glass door, he said, “Someone might have accidentally broken it.” He refused to answer queries on whether the quality of the materials used was compromised. A query addressed to the IISER authorities, too, remains unanswered.
This is not the first time that the quality of building materials used at IISER had become a topic of discussion. IISER-Thiruvanantha-puram, established in August 2008, inaugurated its Vithura campus in January 2016. There were reports last year of various buildings including the central instrumentation facility leaking. The chemistry block was flooded during the November rains.
