Hafeez Contractor consultancy for central educational

Noted architect Hafeez Contractor will be consulted to put in place a model architectural plan for setting up of central educational institutes like IITs and IIMs in the country.
Suggestions of software giant Infosys will also be taken on the architectural design, a committee set up to determine land requirement for central higher educational institutions decided at at meeting here recently.
The committee was set up in November last year by HRD Ministry with Higher Education Secretary Satya N Mohanty as its chairperson against the backdrop of problems arising due to space constraint in setting up of new IITs, IIMs and central universities in cities and towns.

Currently land requirement varies from around 100 acres for IITs to around 200 acres for IIMs and IISERs, around 300 acres for NITs and around 500 acres for IITs and central universities.
At its first meeting held on December 8, the committee decided that its members Ashok Mishra (chairperson of IIT Roorkee's board of governors) and chairman of ICICI Bank K V Kamath "will interact with Hafeez Contractor and submit model architectural plans for various categories of CEis in the next meeting", said a ministry note.
Mohanty was of the view that the central educational institutes should be set up in areas, which are accessible by air and in the vicinity of business or industrial hubs to get quality faculty and provide opportunities for students to take up internships.

One of the mandates of the committee is to recommend fresh norms and criteria for determining land requirement in different locations taking into account the topography and the class of city.
According to the ministry's order, revising land requirement should be such that it is more "realistic" and takes into account technological development which allows for vertical expansion of buildings.