Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) is a public research university established by the government of India in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. Established in 1951, the institute is the first of the IITs to be established and is recognised as an Institute of National Importance. In 2019 it was awarded the status of Institute of Eminence by the Government of India.

The institute was initially established to train engineers after India attained independence in 1947. However, over the years, the institute's academic capabilities diversified with offerings in management, law, architecture, humanities, etc. IIT Kharagpur has an 8.7-square-kilometre (2,100-acre) campus and has about 22,000 residents.IIT Kharagpur is the 4th oldest technical institute in the West Bengal state after Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology Shibpur (established as B.E. College in 1856), Jadavpur University (established as Bengal technical institute in 1906) and Rajabazar Science College (established as Calcutta University campus for Science and Technology in 1914). When the first session started in August 1951, there were 224 students and 42 teachers in the ten departments of the institute. The classrooms, laboratories and the administrative office were housed in the historic building of the Hijli Detention Camp (now known as Shaheed Bhawan), where political revolutionaries were imprisoned during the period of British colonial rule.The office building had served as the headquarters of the Bomber Command of the U.S. 20th Air Force during World War II.IIT Kharagpur is located 120 kilometres (75 mi) west of Kolkata. The campus is located five kilometres away from Kharagpur Railway Station in West Midnapore district. The layout of the present campus and the design of the buildings were carried out by a group of engineers and architects under the guidance of Werner M. Moser, a Swiss architect.^[14] The 8.5-square-kilometre (2,100-acre)^[15] campus is residence to about 22,000 inhabitants. In 2015, IIT Kharagpur had about 605 faculty members, 1,933 employees and approximately 10,010 students living on the campus.^[17] The campus has a total of 55 kilometres (34 miles) of roadways. The Institute plans to go Green by 2020.

The 22 student hostels are located on either side of Scholars Avenue, which extends from the institute gate to the B. C. Roy Technology Hospital. The three earliest halls—Patel, Azad, and Nehru—together constitute the PAN loop or Old Campus, which is located just next to Scholar's Avenue. There are ten hostels for undergraduate male students (MMM, LBS, RP, RK, MS, LLR, HJB, Patel, Azad and Nehru) and two for undergraduate female students (SN/IG and MT). There are a few post-graduate students' hostels including four for women(RLB, Gokhle, Nivedita and SAM) and hostels for research scholars (BCR, VS, BRH and JCB) and a separate hostel for scholars from the armed forces.The Jnan Ghosh stadium and Tata Sports Complex host large-scale sports competitions. The Tagore Open Air Theatre has a capacity of 6,000 people, and is used to host cultural programs.The Science and Technology Entrepreneurs' Park (STEP) provides infrastructure facilities to alumni who want to become entrepreneurs but lack infrastructure to start their own corporation.^[