Nobody is bothered about an institution more than its alumni. A college’s strength is determined by its alumni, they are the ones who lay a solid foundation for the college, and undoubtedly the alumni of MBM University left no room for failure. They have always been steadfast in their support, whether it is taking the college out of the zero-admission zone, establishing a university, constructing specific facilities in the college, offering good placement prospects for students, providing scholarships and financial assistance, and making innumerable contributions.

Highlighting one such contribution of our alumni who overcame all hurdles with their sincere commitment and wholehearted dedication. Every beautiful building has tons of contributors to thank for its creation, and for this endeavour, more than 1200 alumni made direct contributions.

Shree Cement out of their beneficence contributed 2 crores for this project, the company is owned by H M Bangur, whose family had initially contributed rupees 10 lacs in the year 1950 for the establishment of MBM Engineering College, now upgraded as MBM University in the year 2021.The ambitious ENGG GIRLS HOSTEL PROJECT, designed and carried out by the MBM Engineering College Alumni Association, took more than 7 years to complete.

Rome was not built-in day

It went through many ups and downs before establishing a solid foundation, but the mountain of difficulties was easy to conquer when you are an engineer by profession and dedicated as a college alumnus. Prof Gautam Kothari alumnus of batch 1968 discusses the entire process, from commencing with the initiative started by the MBM Alumni Association in 2015 to handing it over to the MBM University on 27th September 2022. 

First Step Forward:

On 7th July 2015, JNVU granted a special request from the alumni association and allocated a piece of land for the project. The bells rang and the trumpets sounded in the hearts of all contributors on August 6, 2015, as the foundation stone was laid. However, the project on paper could take momentum only when H M Bangur agreed to generously donate Rs 2.0 Crores for this project.

Lead and Inspire:

The 1990 MBM Batch took the lead to initially take up this project. A plan layout was prepared by Ar Anshu Agarwal, Head of the Department of Architecture and Town Planning. The Executive Committee officially selected M/s. Mahendra Sethi & Associates as the Architect and chose M/s. Sat Saheb Building Construction as the Contractor on October 7th, 2016.The EC requested Shri Ashok Pareek to oversee the building project. Former president Sohan Bhutada was chosen as a Nodal Member for the project during the EC meeting on March 18, 2017.In August 2019, Prof. S. S. Tak was elected president of the association and the work began under his supervision.

Work & Progress:

Work was initiated after receiving the first instalment of Rs. 1 crore from Shree Cement in November 2016. And The work worth approximately 90.0 lacs was completed in the financial year 2016-17. M/s Shree Cement contributed an additional instalment of Rs 50.0 Lacs during the 2017–18 fiscal year. The building construction work was interrupted due to the paucity of funds available. The project could only get its hold back with an additional donation of 30.0 Lacs from the 1968 Batch. The MBM 1968 Batch visited the project site on 29th September and was pleased to see a block of 6 rooms that had been agreed upon to be named as MBM 1968 Batch Golden Jubilee Block. Following their visit, the 1968 Batch agreed to contribute an extra Rs 30.0 lacs to the development of MBM Golden Jubilee Block “B” on the ground level after being pleased with the construction’s quality. The RCC and Stonework of the building were completed, and the inauguration of the building was done on 4th January 2019 by Shri H M Bangur. 

Again, a helping hand from Alumni:

Even though the project’s estimated total cost was Rs 5.67 crores, work worth Rs 4.18 crores had already been completed. regrettably, Rs 1.16 crores had been withdrawn from the Corpus Fund. This was objected to by the members, and further work was halted. The project was restarted in December 2019 when Prof. S. S. Tak was elected president of the association. Many alumni stepped forward to contribute to the project and the reaming works of the project were completed in the month of May 2021. The association not only reimbursed the amount taken from the corpus fund but added many more amenities in the Hostel. The MBM 1968 Batch further contributed an additional Rs 12 Lacs in 2020–21, bringing their total contribution to Rs 72.0 Lacs, and a block of three, four seated, halls were named “1968 Batch Golden Jubilee Block.

Time waits for none:

Prof Trivedi, the vice chancellor of JNVU visited the Hostel and sanctioned the amount for the room and dining hall furniture from the student’s hostel fee fund. But it was unfortunate that the JNVU administration didn’t provide the required furniture and the building went unoccupied for over a year. In October 2021 Prof Ajay Sharma, joined as the first Vice Chancellor of MBM University and Alumni Association decided to handover the hostel after LOKARPAN of the building by the Honourable Chief Minister of Rajasthan. Unfortunately, this couldn’t happen as planned so the building was transferred by omitting this event.

Time to draw the curtain :

Finally, after one and a half years of the completion of the building, it was handed over to the MBM university administration on 27^th September’22. During this duration association also added an additional facility by developing a covered badminton court. In order for the world-class hostel building to be used as of the new session 2022-23, Vice-Chancellor Prof. Ajay Sharma has given urgent orders for the hostel to be furnished with rooms and dining hall equipment as well as for the provision of mess amenities. This hostel has a further scope to equip it with a digital library, indoor games, gymnasium, activity hall, and in-house Medicare facilities. These are anticipated to be made available soon.

MBM apart from having a stellar academic record also shares a great senior-junior bond. There is a long list of admirable deeds that the college’s alumni have contributed to MBM and one more feather has been added to the cap.

About Author:

Taru Arora is a third-year computer science graduate at MBM engineering college. She has a keen interest in both tech and non-tech stuff. She was the management coordinator during Science Fair-22 and part of Team Ingenious which stood 2nd in NEC-IIT-B. She is working hard on her technical skillset as well.