Mysuru:  The city has another landmark off the Hunsur Road amidst Paduvarahalli, Kukkarahalli Lake and CFTRI — Maharani’s Commerce and Management College and Hostel.

Eye-catching structures have come up on Valmiki Road, opposite the CFTRI Gate where the new college is located.

The buildings have been constructed at a cost of Rs. 174.4 crore and will be formally inaugurated by Chief Minister Siddharamaiah tomorrow at 11 am. Henceforth, the Commerce and Management wings of the college that is at present functioning on JLB Road will move to the prime land on Valmiki Road.

Initially, the project met with stiff opposition from the residents of Paduvarahalli or Vinayakanagar who argued that the land is earmarked for their use and they will not allow it to be used for construction of the boarding facility for girls.

The residents had said that the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) had allotted seven acres land for their use. The Paduvarahalli Gramabhivruddi Trust members had said that they were not opposing the construction of the building to house the new college but will not part with the land granted to them for the hostel. They stated that they have constructed a temple and landscaped a garden. During the village festival, the land is used.

Despite stiff opposition, MLA Vasu, who is also the Chairman of the College Development Council, and other leaders were able to convince the residents to part with the land as the college needs expansion and it is in the interests of students, the college building was proposed in the area that is just one kilometre from the present location of the college. For the record, Maharani’s College is one of South India’s oldest educational institutions for girls.

Maharani’s Science College for Women is an institution which is more than a century old. It is housed in a heritage building and it began as a primary school for 28 girls in 1881, as per the wishes of the then Maharani Kempananjammanni, and it became a college in 1917. In 1979, the college was bifurcated into Maharani’s Science College for Women and Maharani’s Arts College for Women, to accommodate growing number of students seeking admission.

The college now offers both undergraduate and post-graduate courses. The college has 20 Departments including 5 Departments of languages. In total, it offers 20 combinations.

The college also offers six PG courses and BCA course along with six add-on courses. Most of the students of the college are from rural and socially disadvantaged sections. Without this college at least 10% would have discontinued their studies.

The need to expand facilities and infrastructure was felt in 2013 when the strength of all the wings of the college reached over 9,000. College rooms and hostels were clogged with over eight to nine girls sharing a single room. There were no enough toilets for the students and the infrastructure was pathetic. That’s when the State Government intervened.

In 2014, the then Higher Education Minister R.V. Deshpande, accompanied by the then District Minister V. Sreenivasa Prasad (he is now in BJP) visited the Paduvarahalli land and held discussions with the officials. MUDA agreed to allot the land for the construction of the college building. Petitioned by MLA Vasu, Chief Minister Siddharamaiah had tasked Deshpande to address the concerns of the student community that is faced with problems due to lack of infrastructure.

The new building now has three floors and there are 117 rooms in each floor. The rooms include Principal’s chamber, 32 classrooms, 12 rooms for academic chiefs, 21 lecturers rooms, 4 rooms for library, 6 reading rooms, store rooms, computer centre, seminar halls, NCC and sports rooms, counselling centres, waiting rooms and rest rooms.