Union Minister of State for Education Sanjay Dhotre will inaugurate the newly constructed Mega Hostel-II for boys, said to be one of the largest hostels of its kind in the country, at the National Institute of Technology Calicut (NIT-C), on Friday.
The hostel for boys has 1,500 single rooms with various recreational facilities and a modern kitchen. This is the second hostel for boys on the campus. The institute has 11 hostels for boys and three for girls.
At present, the NIT-C has a total student population of around 6,600 of whom 72% are boys, Director-in-Charge P.S. Sathidevi and Dean-in-charge (Planning and Development) Jeevamma Jacob said here on Wednesday.
They added that the hostel, constructed by the Central PWD, at a cost of ₹165.24 crore, is an eight-storey building with a total plinth area of 64,505 sq.m. The project was initially funded by then Ministry of HRD (now Ministry of Education) and later by the Higher Education Funding Agency (HEFA).
Prof. Jacob said the student community at the NIT-C had representation from across the country and abroad. Although hostel facility is primarily meant to provide residential accommodation to students, it provides a myriad of benefits to the community as a whole.
The new project consists of 15 wings of which 14 consist of residential rooms. The number of floors in these fourteen wings vary from five to nine. There are 14 discussion rooms, 14 television rooms, 14 reading rooms, 18 store rooms, two warden rooms, and 28 resident tutor and sick rooms.
There are eight lifts and fire escape stairs. The project includes a lightning arrestor system and a fire-fighting system with a water tank with 1 lakh litre capacity.
Separate fresh water tanks and flushing water tanks with a total capacity of 2.54 lakh litres are provided on the terrace of each wing. In addition, there is an underground water sump of 4-lakh-litre capacity to meet any demand.
The 15th wing (dining block) on two floors, and each floor with an area of 5,771 sq.m., has a seating capacity of 1,500, they said.
