The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : A parting gift with a difference

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 22, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

A parting gift with a difference

R. Sujatha

It took 15 days for final year civil engineering students to execute the novel project It took 15 days for Chennai students to execute the project

THANKSGIVING: The artificial waterfall at the Meenakshi College for Women in Chennai. — Photo: R. Shivaji Rao

CHENNAI: A group of engineering students has hit upon a novel idea — building a gorgeous fountain on their college campus as a parting gift to their alma mater.

This first batch of final year civil engineering students of the Meenakshi Sundararajan Engineering College in Kodambakkam by doing so have set an example for their peers and juniors.

Initially, convincing the college management of their intentions to build an artificial waterfall on the campus was itself a tall order. However, they succeeded after several rounds of discussions with college Principal K.S. Bhabai and Correspondent K.S. Lakshmi, (who is also the principal of the women's college). "The students wanted to leave an impression of what their education meant to them," said M.S. Chandrasekaran, head of the Civil Engineering department.

They gave the credit to the class leader S. Sivaramakrishnan for getting the project on its feet.

The rocky waterfall at the entrance of the Meenakshi College for Women is impressive. It cost about Rs. 40,000 and the design and the execution were by the students. It took the students, who are due to appear for their final exams next week, 15 days to execute the project. The waterfall became operational last week. The management has assured that fresh water would be introduced every fortnight and the recycled water would be used to water plants.

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