IIT Madras, Elevate Campuses to develop student housing for over 1,800 PhD scholars by 2028

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) and Alta Capital-backed Elevate Campuses have entered into an agreement to develop a Rs 400 crore project on student housing under the public-private partnership (PPP) model, which will accommodate over 1,800 PhD scholars and staff, Economic Times reported.

Expected to be completed by 2028, the student housing project will be built on a 3.5-acre land parcel on the IIT Madras campus, as per the report.

Notably, the facility will be managed by Elevate Campuses for 30 years, after which it will be transferred to IIT Madras “free of cost,” the report read.

IIT Madras to provide land for Rs 400 cr student housing facility

Highlighting the role of PPP mode in expansion of institutions, Narasimha Jayakumar, CEO, Elevate Campuses, said in the report: “Student accommodations are not a core activity for academic institutions. While financing may be available, institutes generally prefer to deploy capital towards R&D, laboratories and faculty rather than constructing and operating residential facilities. The PPP model enables institutions to expand student accommodation capacity and ancillary services without any capital outlay,”

“We strongly believe that the Public-Private Partnership model would lead to world-class facilities on campus, and that this particular project could be an example at the national level,” V Kamakoti, director, IIT Madras, said.

Aimed at targeting the growing residential requirements of research scholars and project staff, the project is expected to "become one of the largest student accommodation facilities within the IIT Madras campus, it added.

As part of the agreement, the engineering institute will provide the land, whereas the real-estate firm will finance, develop, maintain and operate the project, the report added.

“During the concession period, the company will be entitled to charge economically competitive hostel fees and ancillary charges from students,” according to the report.

The report further states that Elevate Campuses currently provides accommodation to over 1 lakh students across India, and the realty firm has planned to use its IPO towards acquisitions in the K-12 education sector, and other vertices.