Do you remember the striking ‘white stone walls’ in the Hindi potboiler Three Idiots? You probably also know that much of the movie was shot in the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) campus.
The news is that parts of the iconic wall that make the boundary is going to be pulled down to widen the road outside the IIM-B campus. The civic authorities, in fact, have decided to gobble up parts of the wall on all the four sides of the campus.
Mr Anil S J, Chief Manager (Infrastructure) at IIM-B told PaGaLGuY that while there is still no official communication from the civic authorities, the engineers have already marked the extent of widening on the compound wall. According to Mr Anil, the precise demolitions will be:
Eastern side wall – approx .02 mtrs
Northern side wall – approx 2.5 mtrs
Southern side wall – approx 6.5 to 8.00 mts.
Western side wall – approx .08mtrs.
While the extent of the demolition does not seem much at face value, the fact that it is going to be on all the four sides is the concern. The IIM-B campus has gained repute for its architectural splendour over the years and the facade makes a beautiful picture too. The architecture is part of various case studies and according to its architect B V Doshi the campus “is a conversation piece amongst laypersons and professionals alike.”
The white brick walls are the single most common idea running through the entire campus, internally and externally.
Mr Anil says that all care will be taken to build the white brick wall again. “The plan is to re-use 50-60 per cent of the stones which will be demolished by the authorities. Also we will make sure that the same aesthetics be maintained while constructing the new walls,” informed Mr Anil.
A bit of re-design along the boundary is expected considering that the exact white stones may not be readily available today.
From a layman’s point of view, the decision to demolish the boundary wall seems unjustified; there is plenty of unused land outside the campus boundary wall to accommodate the road widening project. However, according to a civic official who PaGaLGuY found working at a site close to the IIM-B campus, the existing land outside the campus is not enough to accommodate the traffic pressure during peak hours. Bannerghatta Road, on which IIM-B located gets choked during traffic hours. The entire road is going to be widened to 45 m from its existing 28 m. Flyovers and underpasses have also been planned under this project.
The road widening is expected to affect some 900 properties along the road.
On the note of infrastructure, another development that is likely to affect IIM-B will be the metro station, expected to come up close to the campus. While this will mean fast and easy accessibility to the institute, it will also mean traffic congestion during the construction of the metro station. Mr Anil estimates that, the metro station may not greatly affect the main entrance of the campus. However, some disturbance is definitely expected.
The older IIMs, esepcially IIM Ahmedabad and IIM-B are known for their achitecture. The red walls in IIM Ahmedabad and the white ones in IIM-B have given the respective institutes a sense of individuality which make them stand out amongst many other b-schools.