Bhubaneswar, March 17: An external peer review committee of the human resource development ministry has pointed to loopholes in the architecture and landscaping of the permanent campus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bhubaneswar, at Arugul.

The committee has observed that the buildings on the campus are spread over a large area with huge distances between them. This, they believe, will inhibit interaction between the faculty and students of different schools and make the task of promoting interdisciplinary activities difficult.

The committee expressed its displeasure about the fact that the architecture and landscaping failed to assess the requirements of the students and the faculty.

In a report submitted to the Centre and the authorities of IIT Bhubaneswar, the team has recommended that the institute seek advice of a group of master planners and architects to suggest modifications and remedy matters at least to some extent.

The committee also observed a "serious mismatch" between the ratio of construction in the residential area and in the academic area.

During its visit, the committee observed that although the main roads and some buildings (two hostels and the guest house) were ready, most others (including the main building and buildings for various schools) were incomplete.

Besides the infrastructure, members of the committee also reviewed the teaching, research and industry-academia interaction. They said the School of Infrastructure, which is currently oriented towards civil engineering only and eventually plans to add on architecture as a discipline, should consider expanding into other areas such as urban planning or regional planning.

They also recommended a modification of the existing name of the school.

It was suggested that the IIT Bhubaneswar authorities must ensure that sanctioned seats in the BTech degree programme in any discipline did not remain vacant after the admission process was complete and that new academic programmes (both BTech and MTech) needed to be started after due diligence. They suggested that the proposal to start academic programmes in aerospace engineering under the School of Mechanical Sciences might be acceptable only at the MTech and PhD levels.

"A new BTech degree programme in aerospace engineering should not be started because an unfilled capacity exists at the national level," the committee said in its report.

The authorities were also asked to take concrete steps to enhance links with the alumni by regularly updating their database and addresses besides publishing a newsletter that can be sent to the well wishers.

Officials at IIT Bhubaneswar were not available for comment.