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Construction of Gurugram University building in Kankrola still in initial stage
Gurugram: The construction of a building for Gurugram University (GU), which was supposed to start operations at Kankrola village in Sector 87 last year, is still
Gurugram: The construction of a building for Gurugram University (GU), which was supposed to start operations at Kankrola village in Sector 87 last year, is still in its initial stage. Interestingly, in June 2017, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had laid the foundation stone of the city’s first government university at Kankrola and announced that the building will be developed within a year.
In 2018 when the GU started its operations from Rao Tula Ram College campus in Sector 51, university officials had said that within one year at least two blocks will be made and hostel facility will start by 2020.
On ground, only a boundary wall of GU stands. Dr Markanday Ahuja, vice-chancellor of GU, said on Monday that they have ₹20 crore budget and a boundary wall has been made at the Kankrola site for the university. “We have made a boundary wall and gate. A temporary office has also been started. Tenders for classrooms have been allotted and tenders for other works will be issued soon,” said Ahuja.
The university has stationed one guard last year on the plot assigned for it. “I have been guarding this site for more than a year and nothing much has happened. Few months back, a boundary wall was made,” the guard said.
The public works department of the state government is responsible for constructing the varsity building. In 2017, when Haryana assembly passed a Bill to set up the Gurugram University, its cost was estimated to be around ₹700 crore. Ahuja said, “The ₹700 crore was announced by a Haryana minister, but this project was never meant to be of such an amount. For this financial year, we have got ₹20 crore, and the building will be constructed in this amount.”
When asked about the delay, a GU official on anonymity said that there were certain financial implications which have caused the delay.
The GU has ambitious plans of making a swanky building on about 50 acres of land in Kankrola. “An administrative block and two science blocks have been planned initially by the state government,” said Ahuja. In 2018, Ahuja had said that two blocks will be constructed and would be operational by 2019 while the entire university building would be completed in the next three years.
The vice-chancellor said that in 2018 when he was appointed to lead the university, he didn’t have anything with him but slowly everything fell in place. Similarly, Kankrola building will also come about, he said. “Initially, I didn’t even have a desk or table. Gradually, the state government started providing us all the pre-requisites like professors, desks and tables, and a building where students can come and study,” said Ahuja.
The site at Kankrola, around 20km from Rajiv Chowk, was given by the gram panchayat to the state government for the construction of Gurugram University in 2016. The chief minister had announced opening of a university in Gurugram at a public meeting in Kankrola village on April 10, 2016.
Villagers of Kankrola said that they had leased out their land to the university with hopes that the GU would give reservation to their kids. The university land was leased for 30 years by the gram panchayat for ₹1,501 in 2016. Fakir Chand, sarpanch, Kankrola, said, “We had given 46 acres of our land to Gurugram University with the hope that our youngsters will study here, but nothing has happened till now.”
“At the time when we gave the land, we requested the authorities to reserve 2% seats for Kankrola students,” he said.
Two acres of the land where the university is coming up was a cremation ground. “Two acres of land was an active cremation land, which we have shifted 500m away. Six acres belonged to a local temple and the rest was farm land. Till 2017, the cremation ground was functional,” said Chand.
Many students of Gurugram University, who study at the Sector 51 college campus, said that they will face difficulty if they are asked to shift to Kankrola from the present location. Parijat Panday, final year MA (English) student, said, “I live in Palam Vihar. If Dwarka Expressway is not functional soon, then it will take me around an hour to reach the university in Kankrola.”
Some students have also complained that the university in Sector 51 doesn’t have any transport facility and they don’t expect anything better in Kankrola. Yogesh Kumar, first year student, MA (English), said, “There is no connectivity to the Sector 51 college. How can we expect the authorities providing us with facilities in Kankrola?”
