A group of former students of IIEST Shibpur met the chairperson of the institute’s board of governors this week to inform him that the institute has not received the funds that Parliament had approved to upgrade and expand the institute’s infrastructure.
A fund of Rs 592 crore had been approved at the time Bengal Engineering and Science University became a Centre-run IIEST in 2014.
The absence of funding, the alumni said, has “caused further deterioration of inadequate infrastructure”.
Vasudev K. Atre, the chairperson, had invited on November 9 an alumni team to meet him, director Parthasarathi Chakrabarti and the deans where alumni shared their concerns.
The alumni spoke about the steady decline of the IIEST in NIRF ranking — a national ranking exercise — from 19th in 2019 to 40th in 2022.
Rs 592 crore had been sanctioned by the Centre in 2014 when the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST) started its journey.
Bengal Engineering and Science University was a state-aided institution.
Sources on the campus said the ministry had sanctioned Rs 13 crore in the first instalment in early 2020 for developing a boys’ hostel that could accommodate 1,000 boarders.
“Thereafter, the pandemic set in and there was no progress on the delivery of funds. There has not been any progress in the construction of the hostel. As more students have taken admission starting from 2019 under the quota for the economically weak (general category), the classroom and the hostel rooms have to be increased,” the official said.
Anjana Ganguly Ray, one of the former students who was part of the delegation that met the chairperson, said: “Since the elevation to a central academic institute, IIEST is facing many challenges. The absence of the fund is a major challenge. So the chairperson was apprised of this. This subject has been discussed earlier. But nothing has happened”.
Swapan Saha, a former IIEST Shibpur student, now based in California, said: “We are hammering the issue so that the required infrastructure could be developed. The institute will continue to slide in the national ranking if the facilities could not be developed.”
Chairperson Atre could not be contacted.
Calls and messages to IIEST director Parthasarathi Chakrabarti, who was present during the interaction with the alumni, went unanswered.