Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has granted preliminary approval to an educational organisation to establish the city’s first ‘vertical’ university in Malad. Confined to a single high-rise instead of a sprawling campus, it will be a one-of-a-kind university in the entire country.
Earlier this month, a letter of intent (LoI) was issued to Atharva Educational Trust led by BJP’s Borivali MLA Sunil Rane to start a private university housed in a 10-storey building. The trust will have to complete various infrastructure and academic norms before it could be thrown open to students. The proposed varsity will be run separate from the trust’s other educational offerings.
The trust runs several colleges in Malad and had submitted the proposal for a vertical university last year, after the state government relaxed the land norms for new private varsities in densely populated Mumbai and Thane. The new policy allowed universities in the region to operate from an independent building of up to 50 floors with a minimum 15,000 sq mt built-up area.
The earlier norms required a minimum area of 25 acres in rural areas, 15 acres in district headquarters, and 10 acres in regional headquarters, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and the Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR). Under the new policy, the government has completely done away with the land criteria for Mumbai and Thane.
Rane, who is part of the ruling coalition in the state, said that the new venture will allow the educational body to compete with reputed international varsities.
“While on one hand, the government is welcoming international universities in the country, there’s a lot of control over the existing educational institutes in matters such as deciding fees. This is despite us providing the same advanced equipment and facilities as the institutes of global repute,” he said.
Rane said the space is sufficient for the university to be operational, but it will take at least four years for the university to attain its full strength.
Under the norms for vertical universities, the building should have a scope for further construction in case there is a rise in the number of students. Of the total area, it requires 40% reserve space for the playground following the provisions of unified development control and promotion regulations (UDCPR) and development control promotion regulations (DCPR), 2034.
The university is also expected to have a hostel facility for students within the high-rise or nearby. No area of the building can be used for commercial purposes in any way.
