A saga of building future through Collective Envisioning!
- Dr H Chaturvedi
I started applying my mind how the institute could build its brand and attain visibility at the national level after joining BIMTECH at its old campus in Pushp Vihar, New Delhi on September 2, 1999. Having known the growth trajectory of reputed B’schools in India and worldwide, I could identify one primary raison d’etre i.e. a residential campus with state-of-the-art facilities for students and faculty.India.
After wide consultation with leading management educationists, I prepared the ‘Vision-2005’ document and submitted it to the management. The major focus of this document was to build a residential campus with an objective of getting recognized among the top 25 B’schools of India by the year 2005. It was necessary because our premises at Birla Vidya Niketan, Pushp Vihar, New Delhi was very modest and without a residential character.
My predecessor, Dr C B Gupta, a legendary academician (ex-Principal, SRCC, Delhi and Founder Director, IMT, Ghaziabad) was designated by the management as the Advisor. He advised me to try with the DDA for getting a two acre plot in Delhi. DDA, being a typical bureaucratic body, was not willing to help us and scuttled the proposal with some flimsy legal objections.
I saw an advertisement in the India Today in January 2002 in which, the Greater Noida Authority (GNIDA) offered institutional land for educational institutions.
The matter was discussed with the management and I sought their permission to submit our application. 3Our advisor, Dr CB Gupta, was not in favour of moving the campus from New Delhi to Greater Noida, due to fears of losing locational advantages of South Delhi. Meantime, for expanding the geographic base of our student population, we had started hostels in rented premises at Sarvapriya Vihar and Devri Road. It was a tough decision and full of challenges. I continued to convince our management that having a residential campus was a sine-qua non for a good B’school and there was no harm in setting up a campus at Greater Noida.
We submitted an application for getting institutional land from the GNIDA at the Knowledge Park in the last week of January, 2002. At that time there were hardly a few institutions at Greater Noida and reaching the city was also difficult because the Expressway was not ready and access through Dadri – Surajpur side was always cumbersome.
When GNIDA called us for a meeting and making a presentation about our plans for setting up a campus at Greater Noida, we identified a student of PGDM II year to make the presentation.
On March 21, 2002 the presentation was made. The CEO of GNIDA was very impressed by the presentation and he asked me about the presenter. When I told him that he was a student, it was a big surprise for him. That student was Anshul Verma, who later joined BIMTECH as a faculty and worked with us till 2013.
We were offered 20 acres land, but we could not take more than 7.5 acres due to limited budget for the project. We were allotted 30,000 sq.mtr. plot on May 4, 2002 in Knowledge Park II. We were offered Plot No.5 which was still in possession of a farmer, who was not willing to vacate the plot due to his dispute over compensation with the GNIDA. We took help from Mr Nawab Singh Nagar, the local MLA and the then Irrigation Minister in the Government of Uttar Pradesh. Ultimately the dispute with the landowner was resolved by the GNIDA and we got possession of the land on August 14, 2003.
During 2003-04, our finance department did a lot of hard work in estimating the project cost and its short term and long term financial viability. Shri C S Chajjer was looking after this work. A series of meetings were held with Shri RN Jaju, Dr C B Gupta and Shri U N Vajpeyi. I used to visit ECE House, Connaught Place almost every alternate day for discussing the financial and other matters related to the Greater Noida Project.
Syt B K B Birla and Dr (Smt) Sarala Birla, our Founder and Patrons, took keen interest in the Greater Noida Project. They asked Shri Pratap Parikh, an eminent architect of New Delhi to take up this assignment. Since Shri Parikh had worked with BK Birla Group for a long time on several projects, he knew very well their aesthetic requirements. Both Syt Birla ji and Dr (Smit) Birla ji visited the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad in 2002 to meet Ms Vidula, their grand-daughter, who was at that time studying at ISB as a full time MBA student.
The visit of Syt Birla ji and Dr (Smt) Birla ji to ISB, Hyderabad opened many possibilities for us because the overall concept, design, layout, facilities at ISB, Hyderabad were liked by our Founders. They desired that before finalizing designs and layouts of the Greater Noida Campus, we should see the ISB Campus at Hyderabad. I accompanied Shri RN Jaju and Shri Pratap Parikh to ISB, Hyderabad. We saw its academic building, hostels and briefed the management about the architecture of the ISB Campus. The designs of the library, central atrium, classrooms and hostels were liked by us.Shri Pratap Parikh & Associates were engaged as the architects for the Greater Noida Project. They took more than eight months to prepare the architectural layouts and designs. On Ramnavami of 2003, a meeting was held at Mangalam, the Delhi residence of Syt BK Birla and Dr (Smt) Sarala Birla, where a multi-media presentation was made by Shri Pratap Parikh. On this auspicious day, final layout and design was approved by our Founders and Patrons.Before sanctioning funds for the Greater Noida project, Syt Birla ji, in the august presence of Dr (Smt) Sarala Birla, Smt Jayashree Mohta and Shri RN Jaju asked me whether I would work for a long time with the institute. I told them that my commitment for BIMTECH would be lifelong. It was a big commitment from my side and I was aware of its implications. For me, it was a great occasion to see the realization of a big dream.