Mumbai: Two months on, Kalina campus’s new buildings lie empty

Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari inaugurated the girls’ hostels on July 8

Two months since their grand inauguration, four new buildings constructed on the Kalina campus of Mumbai University are still not being used for a simple reason - they lack furniture. According to a student activist, the new buildings - two hostels, an examination hall and a library - were hurriedly inaugurated since Vice-Chancellor Suhas Pednekar's tenure was coming to an end on September 10.

On July 8, Governor of Maharashtra and Chancellor of public universities in the state, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, inaugurated the four new buildings. The buildings had been ready for some time, but their occupation certificates (OC) were received by the administration only 10 days ahead of the inaugurations, officials said.

A room inside the new library building

In the first week of March 2022, former minister of higher and technical education Uday Samant had said that the new library building would be operational from March 15. The minister held a meeting with officials of the university and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to understand the status of different developmental plan works for the Kalina campus, which are incomplete. A nodal officer from BMC was appointed to ensure rapid project movement.

The new buildings

The library, also known as the GyanStrot Kendra, is a two-storey building. The exam and administration building, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Bhavan, is a seven-storey structure that houses the offices of the Vice Chancellor, Pro-Vice Chancellor, and other administrative authorities, as well as examination staff. The international students' hostel is a six-storey structure with 85 rooms for 146 students. The girls' hostel includes 72 rooms to accommodate 144 students.

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"I am planning to write to the governor on this issue. Already the inauguration and opening of the new buildings were deferred multiple times due to the non-issuance of the occupancy certificate. With so much delay the administration should have completed everything. Why the rush? Was it to ensure that the buildings were inaugurated before the former Vice Chancellor's tenure ended? It seems the authorities wanted to ensure their name on the inaugural plaque. Non-issuance of OC was not preventing or restricting them from floating tenders for furniture. This one thing has been preventing these buildings from being operational," said former university student Ashish Dwivedi, who is also a student activist from Chatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti.

The tender for furniture for the international students' hostel was floated on July 20, 12 days after the inauguration, and the tender for the new Knowledge Resource Centre - the library building, was floated on August 10 over a month after the inauguration.

The tender period for both is three months. "This shows that until the work on furniture is done these buildings will not be operational," Dwivedi said.

‘Works done by Welukar'

"This practice of inaugurating buildings and infrastructure and then leaving them inoperational for months was only in rush, to ensure that the names of the VC and other officials appear on the plaque before their tenure ended. However, according to records, majority of the important works and sanctions for them were completed during the tenure of previous Vice Chancellor Rajan Welukar. It was during his term that contractors were appointed. During Suhas Pednekar's term, no important work was done. Besides, it took over three to three and half years to just get the OC," said Pradeep Sawant, senate member and member of the university Management Council. Welukar retired from the university in 2015.

"There was no deadline, things were dependent on the OC, and there was no way we could have started furniture work without it. Besides, as soon as we got the OC, we planned the inauguration. The current administration worked very hard to get all sanctions and planning for these new development plans. There was no rush," said a senior university official.