User:Sjn

NITK Beach:

NITK is the only Institution in the country to have its own beach as the campus extends up to the sea shore. The beautiful, virgin and  golden NITK beach is continuously washed by the serene Arabian Sea. It was found that such a treasure was not fully exploited by the Institute and my efforts were centered in this front. NITK has nearly 300 acres of area equally divided on either side of the highway linking Mangalore and Udupi. It was found that the Campus was mostly developed on the east side of the highway leaving west side up to the sea highly underutilized. This resulted in vandals and anti social elements to encroach on our land and indulge in undesirable activities mainly near the beach. This included tree cutting, thefts and trafficking. I considered this totally unacceptable as we might loose nearly 100 acres of our land if urgent steps were not taken. Absence of a physical protection near the sea such as a compound wall left our area totally unprotected with vandals entering NITK space from the beach. It was now required to reacquire our own land by a proper strategy. The laws of Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) came in the way of utilizing this space. I discussed this matter with Mr. Arvind Srivastava IAS, the DC of Mangalore who happened to be an Alumnus of IITD He was very cooperative and helped in getting NOC to NITK to develop this area for academic pursuits and research on Ocean. A special request was made to MHRD to provide funds to build a strong Compound wall bordering the sea on the beach on our space. Thus with the permission and support of District administration and MHRD the task was taken on war footing and the area fortified and secured in 6 months. Thus we re-acquired 100 acres of our own land.

The beach adjoining NITK campus was named as the NITK Beach and a History created through this renaming. The Beach was formal inaugurated on 25th Dec. 2004 by our distinguished alumnus Mr. Vijay Kumar IAS, (Addl. Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India) during the Global Alumni meet. Now the Beach is attracting lot of visitors with area properly beautified. The approach road to the beach was widened and beautified.