The Hindu Business Line : NID to have new campus

THE National Institute of Design (NID) is all set to unravel its face for the future with a new campus being planned in Gandhinagar, the emerging education hub of Gujarat.

The top design school of the country has decided to dedicate the 15-acre campus exclusively for NID post-graduate students, as it is looking to almost double its student intake from the current level of 585 to 1,000 by 2007. While that number may seem a bit distant, the intermediate plan is start off the new campus with a semi-permanent structure in the next academic year.

The course that has been short-listed for this venture is Information and Digital Design while Animation and New Media are also in the reckoning. The operation has already been put into action with NID inviting bids for the preliminary short-listing of architects for the project.

The design school said that the plan is to construct the extension campus that would "reflect the design values of the current campus while making it a spectacular architectural statement of the new millennium''. Dr Darlie O Koshy, ExecutiveDirector, NID, told Business Line that the new campus would be developed at a cost of Rs 12 crore, the first phase to be completed by 2006 at a cost of Rs 6 crore.

The Gujarat Government has given the land on gratis, with a promise to add another 10 acres. The governing council of NID is expected to submit a development plan to the Planning Commission by April 10.

"There is no way that we are going to give up our existing campus as it has a market replacement value of nearly Rs 100 crore. The idea is to become a multi-location campus, as is the trend the world over. Just as NID was a milestone when Ahmedabad witnessed its heydays as the Manchester of India, we believe that Gandhinagar will connect us with the future,'' Dr Koshy said.

Clearly, the design school is positioning its new campus to meet the challenges of the new economy, given the presence of some leading institutes nearby. They include the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information andCommunication Technology (DAIICT) just as this foray will be a shot in the arm for dormant Gujarat Info-city.

The NID's design for the future is sweetly timed as its 18.6-acre Ahmedabad campus is virtually bursting at its seams, with 430 resident students and a strong battery of resident faculty.

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