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2 years on, second Student Centre at Panjab University to finally become a reality
As per the budget estimates, the new Student Centre will come up at a cost of ₹10 crore; under chargeable heads, ₹8 crore will be taken from the amalgamated fund, while ₹2 crore will come from the student holiday home fund. Work is afoot to invite tenders for the project
A whopping 35 new projects have been envisioned in the 2024-25 budget estimates passed by the Panjab University (PU) senate recently.
Of the total capital outlay of ₹789.63-crore in the upcoming fiscal, the varsity will be pumping in ₹47 crore for the 35 upcoming projects — the most prominent among them being a new Student Centre on the varsity’s south campus in Sector 25 that has been in the works since 2022.
To generate the ₹789.6 crore, PU hopes to earn ₹332.3 crore will internal income, while ₹457.3 crore will be annual maintenance grant, including ₹366.8 crore from UGC and ₹90.5 crore from Punjab government.
As per the budget estimates, the new Student Centre will come up at a cost of ₹10 crore. Under chargeable heads, ₹8 crore will be taken from the amalgamated fund, while ₹2 crore will come from the student holiday home fund. Work is afoot to invite tenders for the project.
An independent Student Centre, modelled after the iconic Stu-C on the main campus, has been a long-standing demand of students on the south campus as they have to go all the way to the main campus, almost a kilometre away. The proposal for the new centre was first discussed and accepted by the university’s budget estimate committee in February 2022.
“A students’ activity centre is a must for the south campus, where around 5,000 students are enrolled. It will also ease the rush at the existing Student Centre on north campus,” said varsity vice-chancellor Renu Vig.
She added that plans for this project were ready and following allotment of tender and allocation of funds, it will be finished within the next two to three years.
A Student Centre on PU’s south campus was also part of the election manifesto of several student bodies in the 2023-24 Panjab University Campus Students Council elections.
The south campus houses the University Institute Of Engineering and Technology (UIET), University Institute of Applied Management Sciences (UIAMS), Dr Harvansh Singh Judge Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, among other departments.
Other major projects to be undertaken by the varsity in the upcoming fiscal include construction of the remaining part of UIAMS building (part 2) at a cost of ₹4.38 crore.
₹3.42 crore have also been earmarked for construction/extension of second and third floors of University Institute of Legal Studies. The university will also spend ₹1.79 crore on installing fire fighting systems (down corner system) in various departments, and ₹1.5 crore on firefighting equipment and alarm system for multi-storey buildings other than hostels.
The university is also planning to re-wire Arts Blocks 1 to 4 and AC Joshi Library at an expense of ₹1.1 crore. Also in process are two student holiday homes for ₹4 crore in Shimla and ₹3 crore in Dalhousie. These will function as guest houses for official and research visits by students and faculty.
Multipurpose auditorium still hanging fire
In addition to the 35 new projects on the horizon, 13 projects are already underway at the varsity with a sanctioned budget of ₹78.7 crore.
At ₹28.5 crore, a significant chunk of the total outlay is being spent on the Multipurpose Auditorium that is also coming up on the south campus.
Being planned since the 2011-12 session, the auditorium was expected to be completed by December 2023. But three months later, it is far from complete. In 2018, a ₹80-lakh fine was imposed on the contractor for delaying the project.
As per PU officials, it will take at least another year before the auditorium becomes functional. Other ongoing projects include improvement of PU’s street lights, providing an elevator at the moot court block 2 at PU department of law and renovation of the PU Faculty Guest House.
