Master plan for IIM-Trichy to be ready

The master plan for the IIM, Trichy is inspired by one of the two most compelling examples of South Indian Temple Architecture found just across town in the island of Srirangam, the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple. Both this temple and the Jambukeswarar Temple in Srirangam dating back to the 2nd CE AD have over the millennia been the basis of thriving urban centers of the ‘South Indian Temple-Urban' archetype, with district ‘prakarams’ delimiting or segregating spaces by function, the use of the cardinal directions and the ‘gopurams’ denoting entrance/exits, decreasing in scale towards the inner sanctum; and the use of transitional spaces as a climactic as well as emotive experiential strategy in the daily experience of the pious.

The architecture master plan for the 11th Indian Institute of Management (IIM) to be erected on the outskirts of Trichy will be ready by November 21, the day when its Chennai centre would be formally inaugurated, said IIM-T director Prafulla Agnihotri. The IIM was launched in Trichy on June 15, 2011 and attracted 84 students in the first year. In the current academic year, it has enrolled around 100 students. The IIM-Trichy currently functions within NIT-Trichy's renovated old library building on the Trichy - Thanjavur Road.
Agnihotri said that the board of governors under the chairmanship of retired IAS officer M Damodaran has already given the green signal to set up its own campus that will come up at Navalpattu on a 70-acre land on the way to Bharathidasan University on the Trichy - Pudukkottai Road. "Tenders will be floated soon after the architecture plan is selected and construction work will start in May next year," Agnihotri said.

The state government allotted 192 acres of land from the stretch of land that was earlier allotted to Bharathidasan University, but it refused to part with 22 acres of land where there is a bore well. The IIM needed the piece of land because it lay at the entrance to the proposed construction facing the Trichy -Pudukkottai Road. BDU registrar Aruchamy told TOI that IIM-Trichy could construct the campus with the entrance facing Suriyur Road, so that the contentious 22 acres with the water source that caters to the 4,000 Bharathidasan students would not be ceded. However, Agnihotri exuded confidence that "The issue will be resolved soon."
Meanwhile, the Chennai centre of IIM-Trichy, which will be inaugurated on November 21, has already shortlisted 28 students and next year the quantum will increase to 50 students. The centre, the first-of-its-kind is aimed at enabling the Chennai-based professionals join the three-year PGDBM (postgraduate diploma in business management). It be housed within the 4000 square feet centre in Ekkattuthangal with four class rooms, a computer lab, wi-fi connectivity, conference room and a library.