New academic year is here, but BU PG centre is not ready

Formalities are the only work on campus as construction is stalled

The hopes of students and teachers of shifting to the new post-graduate centre of the Bangalore University at Mangasandra this academic year are dashed as work came to a standstill for three months and has remained so.

The only work going on in the area during this time has been sharing of formalities between students.

Early promise

Bangalore University registrar B C Mylarappa had visited the site on November 21.
“Work on the new building, which had been kept on hold for more than a year-and-a-half, has been restarted and will be completed within 20 days. The new centre will be opened for work by the first week of January 2012,” he had assured.

Work on the PG centre began soon after, but stopped again, after merely a few days.

Dr S Rangaswamy, finance officer of the varsity, who attended the annual day of the centre on Thursday, also assured that the PG centre will be shifted to the new building soon.

The new building has carpets and electricity connection, but no proper doors or windows, water supply or compound walls.

Weak roots

Mylarappa as well as Prabhu Dev, the vice-chancellor of Bangalore University, are both natives of Kolar district, yet, the centre has been subjected to such poor treatment.

Students continue to attend classes in rooms with leaking roofs and dilapidated walls in a building opened 13 years ago. Most classes of the PG Centre continue to be held in the building of the Government College for Boys.

The University has paid attention to construction of only the administrative block of the Centre. As a result, work on the adjacent education block has been neglected. The University also aims to shift the Centre to the administrative block and continue classes.

After five years

Sources said the State government had given up to 30 acres of land near Mangasandra five years back, for construction of the PG Centre. The then Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had laid the foundation in 2007, flagging off the Rs 11-crore project, which was to have been completed in two years.

The start of work was delayed as the land was given for construction to contractors in November 2008, in spite of objections by the Forest Department regarding the choice of site. In addition, the University took time to present the drawing for the construction.

The contractors managed to complete construction of the administrative block in the midst of such hurdles. They requested the University to provide the drawings for the other blocks, but got none.

New beginning

Sources add that the period of contract ended by November 2010. The contractors therefore submitted a memorandum to the University, requesting that a market price for the rest of the work be set. But, since the University had failed to respond, work could not continue.

“The battle between the contractors and the varsity continues at the cost of the new building,” say sources.