BASE varsity campus to be spruced up for PM Modi visit

BENGALURU: Preparations are under way to give Dr BR Ambedkar School of Economics University, Bengaluru (BASE University) a grand look to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is to inaugurate the institution on December 6. The exterior is being spruced up, and the interiors and infrastructure is also being upgraded, with less than two weeks to go. Funds are pending for the interiors, which look incomplete.

Discussions are on to rope in the horticulture department to improve the campus. Minister for Housing and Infrastructure Development V Somanna and Minister for Higher Education Ashwath Narayan visited the campus on Tuesday evening and met university and higher education department officials to discuss preparations for Modi’s visit. Both ministers believed that a lot needed to be done for the institute.

While releasing Rs 150 crore to BASE for civil works, Somanna pulled up the contractor for shabby work and ordered that work be started 24/7, and gave him a week’s time to spruce up the campus. The university has a strength of 240 students, and just 50 students are on campus, as per the vice-chancellor who spoke at the meeting.

Meanwhile, the infrastructure -- be it the interiors or faculty quarters -- is yet to be completed and remains a challenge for the institute, that claims to be modelled on the lines of London School of Economics. Ashwath Narayan sought to know from university officials what needs to be done by the government. Emergency funds are planned for landscaping too. The building is scheduled to be inaugurated four years after the academic session of BASE was inaugurated at Dr BR Ambedkar Bhavan by former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, on  October 4, 2017.