IISc plans new campus twice its size

The nearly century-old famed Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore intends to build a new campus, twice its size, to meet much of its future expansion needs.

IISc Director Prof P Balaram said the institute of higher learning is in discussion with the government and has requested to allot it land somewhere closeby that can be utilised for the expansion activities.

"I would like to think that if one is going to take a very long term view, one would actually look for a campus of at least twice the size of this one," Balaram told PTI in Bangalore.

"The reason is that there are many, many things which have to be done in Bangalore like greater

industry connection with research labs...all this needs space somewhere in the neighbourhood."

The current land-holding of the IISc, which is ranked highly in the international academic field, is 443 acres. It's celebrating its centenary year in 2009.

"Right now, we are extremely constrained by the growth of Bangalore. We are completely covered on all sides. There is little scope here (the existing campus) for future expansion," Balaram said.

IISc, meanwhile, is currently in the throes of modernisation.

It is building new laboratories for aerospace engineering, biology, physics, nano electronics, nano science and nano engineering in the existing campus.