Hubballi: Students looking for high quality engineering education in the state now need to go no further than Dharwad with the premier Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) beginning classes here since August 1.
Although its inaugural event, scheduled for July 31, had to be postponed owing to the Mahadayi stir, as many as 120 students have begun attending computer science, electrical and mechanical engineering courses since Monday.
Excited to go down in history as the first batch of the newly established IIT, the students, who hail from various parts of the country, are happy with the facilities provided. The palatial hostel building on campus is a perfect home away from home, according to them.
“The arrangements here are very good,” said a student, Sammita Pasumatti, whose father works in the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. Another student, Gourav Tiwari, from Benaras, was elated at the quality of the faculty.
“The professors are some of the best from IIT-Bombay. It is a very good campus with a sophisticated laboratory,” he said. Currently, seven experienced professors from IIT-Bombay have begun classes for the students, who include 10 girls.
While most have arrived from various parts of the country, 10 are from Karnataka, according to. Professor Narayan Punekar. While the faculty have been provided accommodation in an apartment near Karnataka University, the students are staying in a 44-room hostel on campus.
Providing proper infrastructure in time for the institute to take off had become challenging for the district administration, but it did the job on a war-footing and allowed the institute to start its academic year in August. Over 200 labourers worked round- the -clock to have everything in place for the students when they arrived, according to official sources.
Although the higher education department has transferred 470 acres of land free of cost to the IIT-Dharwad for its permanent campus, it may take a while to build. In the meanwhile the IIT will continue to function from the building of the Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI).
