August 30th, 2026
IIT Kharagpur at 75:
Building the Campus for the Next Generation
IITKGP Foundation
Image Source: Times of India
For generations of KGPians, August 18th has been a day to remember where it all began. From the historic Hijli Detention Camp to becoming India’s first IIT, IITKGP has spent 75 years building a legacy of academic excellence, research, innovation and service to the nation. But this year’s Foundation Day carried a distinctly forward-looking message: the IIT Kharagpur of the next 25 years will need a campus as ambitious as its aspirations.
Marking 75 years since its establishment in 1951, IITKGP has embarked on a ₹1,000-crore ($100 million) campus modernization and expansion program, one of the most significant transformations of its physical infrastructure in decades. The initiative reflects Director Suman Chakraborty’s vision of creating an institution capable of contributing to India’s development through 2047 and beyond. “We cannot aspire to create a 2047 institution while living with a 20th-century campus,” the Director said. The transformation encompasses academic and research spaces, laboratories, student amenities, sports and recreation, mobility, public spaces and the overall quality of campus life.
Five new residential buildings, three for men and two for women, are being constructed on the southern side of campus to accommodate approximately 4,500 students by 2027. The $60 million project includes modern dining and kitchen facilities, technology rooms, libraries, music and reading rooms, indoor sports facilities, solar power and systems for recycled water. Fifteen rooms will be reserved for students with disabilities. A separate residential complex will accommodate approximately 1,000 research scholars and visiting academics.
Student wellbeing is another major component of the transformation. The new SETU wellness centre, estimated at $5.6 million and covering more than 5,000 square metres, is designed to move beyond conventional counselling. More than 25 private counsellor rooms will be complemented by therapeutic landscapes, mood rooms, creative studios and meditation spaces, with capacity building supported by NIMHANS Bengaluru. In fact, KGP Alumni have recently donated funds to support the first year salaries of SETU counsellors.
The student experience is being reimagined more broadly. A major 20,000-square-metre CREATE student activity centre will bring together an international-standard indoor sports complex, a 225-user fitness centre and spaces for arts, creativity and student clubs. At the Nalanda Complex, a NAVYA student activity plaza will include an amphitheatre, outdoor classrooms, nature trails, cafés, kiosks and exhibition areas. The swimming pool area is also being expanded.
At the same time, IITKGP is expanding the infrastructure supporting its research and academic ambitions. A new interdisciplinary academic tower named for pioneering scientist Asima Chatterjee is ready for inauguration and will bring together disciplines including mathematics, education, civil engineering, economics and AI-enabled mining research. A $5 million CSE annexe is under construction, alongside a specialized shallow- and deep-water manoeuvring basin to advance ocean engineering research, while a new Mechanical Engineering building has been completed.
The way people move around campus is also changing. Foundation Day saw the launch of an e-cycle sharing service and an app-based campus bus network using AI-enabled demand prediction and real-time scheduling, small but telling examples of a campus being designed around technology, sustainability and convenience.
This transformation also builds on a remarkable history of alumni philanthropy, particularly among KGPians in North America. The tradition reaches back decades, with pioneering alumni such as Vinod Gupta ’67 and Arjun Malhotra ’70 among the early stalwarts who demonstrated what it meant to give back to KGP. Gupta’s philanthropy helped establish the Vinod Gupta School of Management and the Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, while Malhotra has been a longtime supporter of initiatives ranging from the Academy of Classical and Folk Arts to other institutional programs. Their example helped inspire a broader culture of giving that today encompasses generations of alumni and donors across the globe.
Generations of KGPians have invested in IIT Kharagpur through endowed chairs and scholarships, internships, arts and student-support initiatives, and major hall upgrades. During COVID-19, alumni raised more than $500,000 for campus and surrounding staff affected by the lockdown. More recently, Sunil Gaitonde '83 contributed more than $1 million, while the Asoke Deysarkar '71 & family donated its nearly $10 million Houston property to establish an IITKGP Outreach Center. The momentum continues in the Platinum Jubilee era, with California-based alumnus Jyoti Chatterjee ’77 pledging $5 million toward an AI-driven School of Digital Engineering and Partha Ghosh ’71 making an additional $1 million gift for an Imagination Lab, building on his earlier $1 million gift that established the Partha Ghosh Academy of Leadership.
Across these gifts, large and small, runs a shared belief: giving back is a way of extending the KGP experience to future generations. As IIT Kharagpur embarks on its ₹1,000-crore transformation, alumni have an opportunity not only to reconnect with their alma mater, but to help shape its future. The first 75 years built the legacy; the next chapter calls on the entire KGP community to build what comes next—together.