On planning physical infrastructure for a university
In recent years Government of India has been announcing setting up of new universities and institutes of higher learning in different parts of the country. More than a dozen universities (NITs, IITs, IIITs and CUs) have been announced in past one decade. Till date only one or two of them have become fully functional from their independent campuses. Reasons of the delay are varied, though one thing is common: lack of proper planning in those projects . Even though MHRD allows them to operate in a project mode for extended years, most administrators and planners do not seem to treat the mammoth task of creating a university as a project . Very few of these projects have employed the services of certified/experienced project managers. Most of the project managers in those projects are personnel who have just risen through the ranks over time without any formal project management training or certification. Nevertheless, my intent in this post is not to dissect reasons for project del