Varsity Internet project inauguration today

By Ramya Kannan

CHENNAI, NOV. 28. Three years and several false starts later, Tamil Nadu's largest and oldest varsity - Madras University - is finally all set to inaugurate its Internet project on Thursday.

Whether administrative or procedural hurdles, the ambitious Internet project did run a full obstacle race, before the present Vice Chancellor, Dr.Pon Kothandaraman, managed to steer it to completion. Though slightly altered from its original conception in 1998, the Internet project which will still honour the purpose in its entirety- forging inter campus connectivity.

When put to paper by Prof. P. T. Manoharan, the then vice Chancellor of Madras University, the idea was to have optic fibre connectivity among the four campuses with browsing facilities in each faculty member's room. In its passage through the hallowed corridors of the varsity and its equally long winded procedural formalities, the ambitious plan ran into rough weather after allegations were made by a section of academicians. They charged that the procedure followed for awarding the contract was in violation of stipulated norms.

With academicians and administrators hotly defending their points of view, the project was bogged down. In April last year, the then Registrar of the University refused to sign the papers to award the contract, joining issue with the dissenters.

To ensure that the belated project got off its feet, the University formed a separate task force, including government- identified experts to finalise hardware and software purchase. Open tenders were called for and IT major IBM was finally awarded the contract in January. In its present avatar, the Internet project is a cross-campus network, with nodal centres in each campus Marina, Guindy, Tharamani and Chepauk. The project cost tots up to Rs. 85 lakhs, out of which Rs 65 lakhs was given as grant by the UGC.

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Section  : Southern States
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