IIMA's 100 acres are divided into parts, an 'Old' campus of roughly 65 acres and a 'New' Campus, by a highway-the 132-feet Ring Road. But the two parts are connected by a pedestrian underpass that is unique-it is a private underpass. The design of the underpass was first presented to IIMA's Building Committee on September 26, 2001 by Dr. Bimal Patel, the architect who had been selected to design the New Campus (Figure 1). The Institute and the architect were clear that the underpass was meant only for pedestrians-the design would have to ensure that powered two-wheelers were prevented from entering the underpass. However, there was a long delay in obtaining the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's (AMC) approval for the underpass. Perhaps the private nature of the underpass posed a problem! IIMA members were finding it difficult to cross the highway since it was becoming increasingly busy. Finally, on May 23, 2003 the Institute received permission to construct the underpass. However, it was too late to start the work due to the approaching monsoon season.

The next few months were spent in finalizing many details regarding the construction, the precautions to be taken to ensure safety, and other security aspects. The Institute also sought legal opinion on safety and security issues as the work involved directly interfering with a public facility (the highway). M/s JMC Projects (India) was awarded the contract to build the underpass. The budgeted amount was Rupees 9.5 million. The construction of the underpass began in mid-October 2003. AMC had requested for this delayed start since they needed some time to prepare themselves. The details of some pipelines, cables and other utility lines that were concealed in the ground were not available with the municipal or electricity supply authorities. This meant that the contractor had to take utmost care to avoid any major damage to the service lines. As a result, the originally planned seven months for underpass construction had to be extended by about two and a half months. The work was completed on August 17, 2004.

The permission for the underpass was obtained in May 2003, construction began in October that year, and was completed in August 2004. While the construction was going on, students had started staying in the dormitories that were coming up on the New Campus. Two dorms had been completed by June 2003 and 82 students immediately occupied them. This posed a peculiar challenge for the Institute: network connectivity from the existing campus to the newly built dorms had to be provided. An interesting special report on the requirements of students was published in the IIMA Alumnus of November 2003.