BE College old boy pledges 10 crore to alma mater in highest alumnus donation in Bengal
Times of India | 27 March 2025
12 Kolkata: A former student of BE College, Shibpur (now IIEST), has pledged to donate Rs 10 crore to his alma mater to set up a centre for sustainable infrastructure development. This is by far the largest endowment to a Bengal institute by an alumnus.
Sudhangsu Sekhar Chakraborty (88), now a resident of Delhi, graduated from the college's civil engineering dep-artment in 1957. The octogenarian, who was an engineer for nearly six decades with experience in the fields of infrastructure, engineering, entrepreneurship and academia, feels study in the field of sustainable infrastructure is the need of the hour.
Chakraborty's donation would surpass a million-dollar pledge by another alumnus, Arun Deb, by about Rs 1.4 crore, reported by TOI on Jan 1. Deb, Chakraborty's batch mate, had pledged the amount to set up a centre for water and environmental research.
"This is the largest endowment by any individual to the institution," said IIEST director VMSR Murthy, of Chakraborty's pledge. "The commitment to create a centre is a very novel initiative in an upcoming area, which will cater to the needs of the country and the world."
Chakraborty was born in 1937 in Ghoperghat village in Jessore. "My father passed away in 1947. By that time, communal mayhem erupted, and we were trying to cope with the situation. We left our ancestral home in 1948 and came to Kolkata," he said. "We stayed at a rented house in Pathuriaghata. The family was trying to rebuild itself from scratch."
After passing his matriculation from Metropolitan School with a gold medal in maths in 1951, he went on to study at Presidency College till 1953 and civil engineering at BE College from 1953 to 1957.
The fresh graduate joined Braithwaite Burn & Jessop as a trainee, where he was offered Rs 110 as a monthly stipend, he recalls. But even as his training was coming to an end, he received an offer from BE College and joined the institution as a teacher in the civil engineering department on Aug 16, 1958. He served there till 1959. Chakraborty received the Indo-German scholarship in 1959 for carrying out research in Germany and the UK. He returned to India in 1962 and, after juggling a few job offers, settled down with Rendel Palmer & Tritton. Finally, in 1969, he managed to co-found a consultancy firm with whatever saving he had.
"I played a key role in the research and development of major infrastructure projects, such as Vidyasagar Setu, Nivedita Setu, New Yamuna Bridge and Atal Setu, while also contributing to transform India's road network through initiatives like the Golden Quadrilateral and various National Highway projects," Chakraborty said. Apart from his engineering accomplishments, he has also delivered lectures at prestigious international organisations and received numerous accolades: he was the only Indian to receive a gold medal from the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK) in 2007 and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Indian National Academy of Engineering in 2008.
Chakraborty said he always wanted to set up a centre at his alma mater because of the bond he shares with the institution. "I was thinking of donating the money for a few years, but my wish became more consolidated in 2024 after I fractured my spine after a fall. There were some health complications too, and I suffered a stroke, too. I decided to delay no further. Since my wife and two daughters are financially independent, I thought of utilising my money in a fruitful way so that it helps students and researchers in an upcoming area of study," he said.
The centre, he said, would ideally have modern labs, state-of-the-art infrastructure and a data centre, and it would play a pivotal role in advancing innovation and research in sectors such as energy transition, disaster resilience, next-generation building materials, biodiversity conservation and smart technologies. "The centre will foster strong academia-industry partnerships, support skill development and facilitate internships and consultancy projects," he said.