The nine-decade-old Andhra University will be celebrating its grand alumni meet here on Saturday and the list of alumni includes a number of prominent personalities, including Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu. Apart from having a number of engagements, Mr. Venkaiah Naidu will be inaugurating the new convention centre building built by the university on beach road.
The idea of having a modern convention centre building was mooted about 10 years ago and the project was grounded in 2011. It took six years for the majestic structure to come up and the university faced a number of hurdles, including severe fund crunch during the period.
Finally, the building overlooking the Bay of Bengal is ready. “It took some time, but it is worth the wait and today it is the largest convention centre in the State, going by its seating capacity,” said AU Vice-Chancellor G. Nageswara Rao.
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Shaped like a tortoise, if seen from the bird’s eye, the auditorium has five levels of seating arrangements, overlooking a huge dais. The built-up area is around 40,000 sft and the total area is around 4.5 acres with landscaped gardens and two parking areas that can accommodate 400 cars.
The auditorium has a fixed seating capacity of 1600 seats and another 200 moveable chairs can be accommodated in the gallery section. It is totally acoustic and centrally air-conditioned.
“We have arrangements for two fully-furnished VVIP lounges, one exhibition gallery, one two-hundred-seater mini conference hall, two 16-passenger capsule lifts, four green rooms and sufficient washrooms at each level,” said Prof. Nageswara Rao. Built at a cost of ₹ 13.5 crore, the convention centre has 12 CC Tv cameras with another four in the provision.
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The dais can accommodate at least 40 chairs and has backdrop with 12x44 feet LED screen.
“It is definitely going to be an iconic structure on the Beach Road and we have taken all precautions to see that glass façade can withstand wind speed up to 270 kmph,” said the VC.
AU has got an illustrious list of alumni and efforts are being made to tap the alumni base for funding. HUDCO CMD M Ravikanth has already assured us a grant of ₹ 1 crore for the new R&D centre, the foundation stone for which will laid on Saturday by the Vice-President and a recurring grant of ₹ 25 lakh for the next five years, said Prof. Nageswara Rao.
This apart Purna Saggurti, CMD Bank of America, has promised to fund two floors of the R&D centre and GMR has already given ₹ 1 crore. “Our idea is to see that the alumni owns up their alma mater. The funding should come out of love and affection towards the university,” said the V-C.