Govt shelved IIT Delhi's Jhajjar campus

The construction of the proposed Jhajjar Campus was stopped because the load-bearing capacity of the land was too low due to the land's topography and waterlogging, which made it unsuitable for IIT Delhi facilities. Sonipat Campus: IIT Delhi has a functioning Sonipat campus equipped with 35 advanced research facilities including sophisticated microscopes, 3D metal printers, and devices for environmental monitoring which collectively support the research in a number of scientific fields.

Ideas & Partnerships: The Sonipat campus is home to Atal Incubation Centre, I-Hub Foundation for Cobotics, and the Atmospheric Observatory, creating a setup for industry interaction, entrepreneurship, and research at the forefront of the field. The Jhajjar campus of IIT Delhi may not be launched as the land that was sanctioned for the project was found to be unfit for the construction of IIT Delhi Extension Campus in Jhajjar. This update was shared by Sukanta Majumdar, Minister Of State In The Ministry Of Education, in Lok Sabha on Monday (March 16).

"An extension campus of IIT Delhi at Jhajjar, Haryana was earlier proposed, however, based on the technical survey held at the location, it was concluded/found that the load bearing capacity of the land is very low due to its topography and water logging and therefore, the land could not meet the requirements of IIT Delhi for construction of its planned facilities," Majumdar said.

"IIT Delhi has already set up its extension campus on 50 acres of land situated within the Rajiv Gandhi Education City (RGEC) in Sonipat, Haryana. The campus is the center for advanced research, innovation and industry collaboration. At present, there are 35 state-of-the-art laboratories and facilities, the capital value of which is approximately INR 190 Crores, to support the research of chemists physicists biologists, materials scientists, and engineers from academic and RND institutes as well as MSMEs and industry, " The research facilities include high-end light and electron microscopes, a 3D metal printer, chemical and material synthesis and characterization devices, spectroscopy/spectrometry, and environmental monitoring devices. In addition to the centralized research facilities, the Sonipat campus contains the laboratories of the Optics and Photonics Unit of IIT Delhi, the Atal Incubation Centre for translational research, and a new High Performance Computational Facility," Majumdar said.

"The campus also hosts the Atmospheric Observatory, operated by the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences in collaboration with IMD, NASA, ISRO, and the University of Helsinki. Beyond research, the campus has emerged as a center for technological innovation. The institute hosts the I-Hub Foundation for Cobotics (IHFC), which unites academia, industry, and government to develop technologies that enhance human–robot collaboration and the Atal Incubation Centre (AIC), part of the Atal Innovation Mission, which supports entrepreneurs in building scalable and sustainable ventures," he added.