GGSIPU's East Delhi campus to house SPA

New Delhi, Jun 7 (PTI) The East Delhi Campus of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) that will be inaugurated on June 8 will also house the School of Planning and Architecture, which will be shifted to it from July, officials said.

The idea is to ensure that these schools can share faculties and labs, they added.

The East Delhi campus will already be housing two schools --  School of Automation and  Robotics and School of Design and Innovation -- on the day the new campus is opened.

"From July onwards, the University School of Planning and Architecture will also be shifted to this campus. There is a synergy between the courses run by the three schools. These schools will be sharing faculty members, labs and there are also possibilities that we can run some programmes jointly," said GGSIPU Professor P C Sharma.

The three schools will be located on the sprawling 19-acre campus of the university that has been built at a cost of Rs 388 crore. The building will meet its electricity demand on its own through net-zero consumption.

What is interesting is that the university utilises the technology of geothermal cooling for its residential blocks and hostel blocks, Professor Sharma said.

"While the classes and the academic block are air-conditioned, it is not possible to provide 24X7 airconditioning to the residential blocks and hostels. We have used geothermal cooling that ensures that there is natural cooling. It utilises natural air to provide cool air to residents," said Professor Ajay Singholi.

Another interesting fact is that the campus has an Indraprastha Incubation centre to encourage and provide aid to start-ups, he said.

"Any resident of Delhi can approach us with their start-up idea and based on their proposal, they will be funded. At present, 12 start-ups are being funded by the Centre," Singholi added.

The GGSIPU has also set up a denovo lab where students from the university, including its affiliated colleges, can carry out experiments. The lab will be open from 9 am to 5 pm but in future, the timings could be extended, the senior faculty member said.

Education Minister Atishi had on Tuesday said the campus in Surajmal Vihar will provide world-class education to 2,400 students. The courses have been designed keeping in mind the needs of the 21st century, the minister added.

The campus features a nine-storey academic block and a seven-storey main academic block. The main academic block houses a central library, incubation centre, lecture theatre, classrooms, auditorium, indoor sports hall and a residential complex for students coming from far away places. PTI SLB CK