Although the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram (IISER) has started functioning from its campus at Vithura fully from November 2018, the institute is yet to exit from project mode.
Replying to a question by Shashi Tharoor in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Union Minister for Education Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said there were several reasons for the inability of the autonomous institution, under the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, to exit from project mode even in 2021.
The breakdown of the initial contract with M/s Consolidated Construction Consortium Limited (CCCL), hard terrain of the region in which the institute is located, heavy rain for almost seven to eight months annually that preclude constructions and non-availability of adequate number of workforce are some of the reasons, he informed the Lok Sabha.
Three departments of IISER Thiruvananthapuram have independent buildings already and these are Chemistry, Biology and Physics, the Union Minister said.
The Union Minister said the institute was not in a position to accommodate all the students on a single occupancy basis if they joined the residential campus during the prevailing pandemic. Furnishing of a 1,000-bed hostel need to be completed, after which all the students could be accommodated.
