After complaints, Madras university plans to improve guest houses

Siddharth Prabhakar | TNN | Dec 25, 2017, 06:53 IST

 

 

CHANGE FOR THE BETTER:The vice-chancellor's official residence in Kotturpuram will be converted into a VIP guest house.

 

CHENNAI: After an audit report in March found that the international hostel and guest houses of University of Madras were being utilised poorly, the university has framed detailed guidelines to improve the facilities ensuring that the rooms aren't misused.
The vice-chancellor has relinquished his official bungalow, beside the Anna Centenary library in Kotturpuram, which will be converted into a VIP guest house for international and national visiting professors, scientists and other top officials.

Though the university has several properties for visiting faculty and students in the city, most of them remain vacant or were used by politicians and research scholars for unlawful activities, said sources. Professors said international students and academics invited for conferences and PhD viva-voce had to stay in hotels as facilities in the university guest houses were poor. The university authorities recently formed a committee which looked into the issue and came out with a set of recommendations, sources said. All the guest houses and the international hostel will be managed by a professor rank faculty nominated by the vice-chancellor.

The university has a beach-facing guest house beside its Marina campus and another such facility, known as the UGC-Human Resource Development Centre (HRDC) hostel behind it. This is the only such sea-facing guest-house on the stretch owned by the government. A separate hostel for international students has been constructed at the Taramani campus. But the March audit report stated that though crores of rupees had been pumped into construction of the hostel in Taramani, 203 rooms remained unoccupied. The HRDC guest-house was completed in May 2016 but that too was not put to use. There was considerable loss in revenue because of this, the report noted.

Vice-chancellor P Duraisamy said the syndicate had given approval for the revamp of these facilities and had prepared guidelines for its usage. "Earlier, the registrar and public relations officer were in-charge and it was inefficiently managed, now a professor has been put in charge and a separate bank account has been created," he said. The maximum rent for a suite is Rs2,500 per day. Guidelines on who can use the rooms, period of stay and who will be authorised to give permission for use has been laid out. Senate, syndicate members, visiting academics, experts on exam duty and parents will be allowed to use the facilities.