Faced with the prospect of escalating real estate costs and the lack of adequate finances, the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore is experimenting with "off-campus housing" to accommodate additional students from the next academic year. If the experiment works, it may set a precedent for other IIMs.

With its campus in Bannerghatta already brimming, the institute has decided to take 50 apartments (150 rooms) on lease in a nearby residential building called Ajmera Complex. The plan is to lodge students from the one-year full time Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management - to be launched in April 2009 - in the leased apartments.

"Unless we experiment, we wouldn't know if this is the way ahead," reasoned Pankaj Chandra, director of IIM-B, on the initiative.

IIM-B may also accommodate some students from the Post Graduate Programme and doctoral programme at off-campus locations. The institute is planning a bus service from its premises to the off-campus housing to make it convenient for students to travel.

In its recent report, the IIM Review Committee - led by Maruti [Get Quote] Suzuki India chairman RC Bhargava - suggested that IIM faculty and administrative staff residences could be moved to off-campus sites, and accommodation bought/rented there so that "the existing infrastructure could be more intensively used".

Chandra said the institute had received Rs 29 crore from the human resources development ministry for the OBC quota expansion, but the overall expenses of accommodating new faculty and students is expected to be much higher than that. Subsequently, the institute is keenly looking at financial support from corporate houses and alumni.

Unlike IIM-Ahmedabad and IIM-Lucknow, which have two campuses, IIM-B hasn't had any major construction activity in the last 10 years. Chandra added that the institute has taken up the off-campus option despite plans to commission some construction from this December. The institute has hired an architect for a new hostel facility, 10 classrooms and 24 faculty homes.

The institute has over 950 students from various programmes on its campus at present. From the academic year of 2009-10, the number of students in the PGP and doctoral programme is expected to go up from 640 to 690, the Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy and Management will have an increased intake of 63 from 33, and the one-year EPGP is expected to have 75 seats, making it an intake of 150 new seats at the campus.