Indian Institute Of Technology Bombay
History
IIT Bombay was the second IITto be established in 1958 with assistance from UNESCO and with funds contributed by the Soviet Union UNESCO agreed to provide equipment and technical experts mainly from
the Soviet Union, while the Government of India accepted the
responsibility for all other expenses including the cost of the
building project and recurring expenses.
The site chosen for the institute was Powai eighteen miles (29 km) from the city of Bombay (Mumbai), with an area
of 550 acres (2.2 km²) which was given by the then Bombay State
Government. While construction was being completed, the first academic
session of the Institute opened on July 25 1958 in its temporary home at the Synthetic and Art Silk Mills Research Association (SASMIRA) building in Worli(Bombay) with 100 students. These students were selected from over
3,400 applicants for admission to the first year undergraduate
programmes in Chemical, Civil, Electrical, Mechanical and Metallurgical
Engineering. One of the main objectives of establishing the Institute
was to develop facilities for studies in a variety of specialised
engineering and technological sciences. The need for establishing
adequate facilities for postgraduate studies and research was kept
uppermost in mind in the founding years.
While the Institute was functioning provisionally at Worli, an
effort was made to expedite the progress of the building project at its
permanent location. When Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone of the Institute at Powai on 10 March 1959 water and electric supply lines were just being laid and one approach road to the site was under construction.
Today, nearly fifty years later, IIT Bombay continues to contribute
significantly to the advancement of science and technology in India in
a number of ways. It has produced world class engineers and scientists,
and alumni of IIT Bombay are achieving success in various capacities as
entrepreneurs, managers, technocrats, consultants and advisers, and as
faculty members and researchers, in India and abroad.
Campus
The IIT Bombay campus is located at Powai, a suburb in north western Mumbai ,between the Vihar and Powai akes. The closest railway stops to IIT Mumbai on the Mumbai Suburban Railway are Kanjurmarg and Vikhroi both on the Central line. The four main entrances to the campus are the Main Gate, the Middle Gate (now closed for security reasons), the Y-Point Gate (also called the Market Gate) and the Lake Side Gate. The Main Gate is the only one which is open 24 hours a day, while the Y-Point Gate is open only between 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
The campus is divided into clusters of buildings. The academic area
chiefly comprises the Main Building, various Departmental annexures and
auditoria. All department annexures are connected by a corridor named Infinite Corridor.
Beyond the Convocation Hall lies the hostels (with the exception of
Hostel 10, which is abutting the departmental annexure). The hostels
are numbered from 1 through 13, with Hostel 10 (under-graduate and
post-graduate) and Hostel 11 (post-graduate) specially reserved for
women. Tansa House is a housing complex exclusively for the
single male project staff. It is the smallest hostel in IIT Bombay with
128 rooms. The Tulsi House is meant for married research scholars. Apart from these, few students also reside in Type -1 quarters, Vihar House, QIP quarters and DRDO building which are situated in the campus.
Due to its proximity to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park the campus is extremely clean, green and mostly untouched by the
pollution of the rest of the city. The panthers proximity of the campus to the
national park has also led to occasional sightings of and Gharial(Gavialis gangeticus) crocodilians along the banks of Lake Powai. A popular weekly newspaper Planet powai reports events and happenings of this campus regularly.
The annual science and technology festival Techfest is usually held in the month of January and is the largest of its kind
in Asia.The most attractive feature of this 3 day event are the
exhibitions,impressive display of technology developed from all parts
of India and from all over world.
The annual cultural and arts festival Mood Indigo is held in the month of December and is one of the largest of its kind
in India.This festival attracts a huge crowd from colleges all over the
city of Mumbai and also from those in the other states of India.The
most popular event are the PRONITES.These are organised on each
successive night of this festival and are characterised by a
performance from various popular Indian artists and occasionally from
international artists.
Both these college festivals are organised,financially managed and
conducted entirely by the students of this Institute.Both these
festivals are sponsored by various companies and even some of the
public banks.
These festivals receive huge sums of money from their sponsors This
is one of the primary reasons for these festivals being able to afford
the organisation of various big events.
Famous alumni
