IIT Delhi’s Jhajjar campus expansion shelved after technical survey flags weak soil, waterlogging: Govt

A 50-acre plot in Haryana’s Jhajjar district, earmarked for Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi extension campus, has been abandoned after soil tests revealed that the land was too weak and waterlogged to support construction, Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar said in Lok Sabha on Monday.

The written response stated, “An extension campus of IIT Delhi at Jhajjar, Haryana, was earlier proposed, however, based on the technical survey held at the location, it was concluded/found that the load bearing capacity of the land is very low due to its topography and waterlogging and therefore, the land could not meet the requirements of IIT Delhi for construction of its planned facilities”.

The disclosure came in response to an unstarred question by Deepender Singh Hooda, five-term MP from Indian National Congress. In 2022, IIT Delhi had announced two extension campuses in Jhajjar and Sonipat. In 2023, IIT Delhi held a workshop with All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to start a joint PhD at the Jhajjar campus.

IIT Delhi director Rangan Banerjee had informed that Jhajjar campus will be a greenfield project and planned as a healthcare hub with a focus on cancer research.

IIT Delhi Jhajjar campus

The 50-acre land parcel in village Badsa, Jhajjar, was allocated to IIT Delhi and the institute gave acceptance in January 2022. A Rajya Sabha written response from 2022 stated, “IIT Delhi gave acceptance to establish the extension campus at Jhajjar on January 6, 2022. The quantitative survey work of the site is completed and the soil testing work is ongoing. The work related to construction of buildings, development of R&D facilities would be completed during the next five years, after which the campus will start functioning in full capacity.”

The Sonipat campus is functioning with research facilities, including laboratories of the Optics and Photonics Unit of IIT Delhi, the Atal Incubation Centre for translational research, and a new High Performance Computational Facility.

Majumdar also said, “IIT Delhi already has its extension campus situated on 50 acres within the Rajiv Gandhi Education City (RGEC) in Sonipat, Haryana. The campus acts as a hub for advanced research, innovation, and industry collaboration. Currently, there are 35 sophisticated facilities, valued approximately at Rs 190 crore, to support the research of chemists, physicists, biologists, material scientists, and engineers from academic and R&D institutes, as well as, MSMEs and industry.”