PM Modi inaugurates IIT-M’s Discovery Campus at Thaiyur

The satellite campus of the institute would host state-of-the-art standalone research centres with large dedicated facilities and would have its own support infrastructure such as hostels for research scholars and fellows, common instrumentation laboratories and conference facilities, among other amenities, said a press release. 

Following the research successes of IIT-Madras in several fields, large research centres are being funded by various Ministries and central agencies as well as industry sponsors. Many of these centres required dedicated facilities to be created, requiring additional space which was at a premium at the main campus in Guindy. The satellite campus at Thaiyur has been planned primarily as a research campus to meet the need to create world-class research facilities, it added. 

This is the second facility created by the institute after the IIT Madras Research Park established in 2010-2017. 

Two research centres have already been planned for the Discovery Campus and would be operational by end of the year. These include the National Technology Centre for Ports, Waterways and Coasts funded by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, which would house the country’s first large (95mx65m) ‘shallow water basin’ facility for coastal and estuarine research, and industrial applications. 

The second is the ‘solid propellant combustion modelling facility’ of the Centre of Propulsion Technology funded by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). This modelling facility would be the first to be established under the Centre of Propulsion Technology at IIT Madras. CM Edappadi K Palaniswami and Governor Banwarilal Purohit were part of the inauguration function on Sunday, the institute said. It was during late chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s period that the IIT put forth the proposal to set up the satellite campus. Accepting the plan, the then State government allotted 163 acre land in Thaiyur, that is situated about 36 km from the main campus.