SMUDE

Centrally air-conditioned state of the art auditorium of the University “Matrika” is a state-of-art architecture marvel. The foundation of the auditorium was laid on February 6, 2006 which is the finest in the state and country, in barely three years of the existence as a University. It has a seating capacity of 1000 persons, 700 at the ground floor and 300 at the balcony level. It has fully equipped seminar halls and conference halls.

The centre portion of the roof of this auditorium is a pyramid has been sliced along the horizontal plane & lifted up. This auditorium has been provided a state-of-art stage with the latest and highly adjustable lights and sound system. It has the most modern Audio and video projection systems. It is designed with the latest technology against seismic forces and has been equipped with the latest heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. It also has smoke detectors, fire alarm systems and automatic sprinkler system, for early detection of fire.

Matrika auditorium of the university was inaugurated on 8 March, 2008 by Lt. Gen. (Retd.) S. K. Sinha, former Chancellor of SMVDU. Inaugurating the state of the art Auditorium “Matrika” in the campus Lt. Gen. said that, “impossible has been made possible by the dedicated effort of Vice Chancellor and his team”. Describing Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University as a flag ship of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, Lt. Gen. Sinha said that apart from hard work and dedication of all, the blessings of the Mata have been always there to achieve achievement after achievement. Speaking on the occasion Vice Chancellor, described the Auditorium as one of the best and said hardly any University possesses such a facility within short span of three years of its inception.

The inaugural session was marked by a high profile musical extravaganza organized by J&K; academy of art culture & languages in collaboration with Govt. Women’s College Gandhi Nagar, Jammu.

Banking & ATM Facilities

The J&K; Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce have a branch each on the campus which caters to the students, staff, and faculty members of the university.  The J&K; bank has the facility of an ATM.  Facility of electronic transfer of funds exists with these banks.  Each student of the University is required to have a Bank Account with any one of these banks which is utilized for the students personal finance as well as any refunds from the university.

Post-Office

The postal department has opened a post-office for the use of the residents of the university in the campus itself.  The post-office has all standard facilities including Money order, Speed Post, Registered Post etc.  The postal address of the campus is :

Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University
Sub Post Office, SMVD University, Katra 182 320
J&K;, INDIA

Introduction

For an institution of higher learning being established in the 21st century, the stress must be on planning and implementation of the information technology and telecommunication related facilities for students, faculty and general administration purposes. The demand for such infrastructure becomes more critical if the institution is located away from the major urban centre, or district headquarters. At SMVDU, with the number of students now close to 250, and number of faculty close to 40, the need for reliable and robust connectivity within the University and with the outside world is imperative and self evident. In this short span of time, the University has not only been able to establish a good infrastructural setup so far as computer laboratories are concerned but has also put in place a 512 kbps satellite based internet connectivity from IPStar with the help of Software Technology Parks India Ltd.

Computerization

The available IT and internal telecom network of the University can be considered as one of the best in the state of Jammu and Kashmir as regards the quality of equipment, and the demand and supply parameters. All laboratories have internet connectivity. Apart from this, the University has a full-fledged network control center with Linux ad Microsoft servers. The University plans to provide modern technological services like e-mail, ftp, centralized printing, web services to its faculty and students in the coming academic session. IT infrastructure is being augmented to enable all such services. All faculty members are provided computers in their office cabins which are connected to high speed servers and the LAN. The university has currently over 200 computers in use. The administrative staff members have been provided with the latest hardware and software facilities enabling them to carry out their duties more efficiently and promptly. Currently the Examination results and generation of salary are the two administrative activities that have been fully computerized by using software that has been developed in-house.

SMVD University Net and Internet Connectivity

The University has a full-fledged network center developed on Linux, Solaris and Microsoft servers. This centre serves as the control point for the Internet facility available in the University. SMVDU has commissioned Wi Fi connectivity in academic and student residential area recently. The faculty residential area has been connected to the network centre through our own broadband facility. The Network Centre covers all departments, hostels, administrative offices, medical centre, guest house, and has even provided the services to faculty residences as well. It has been built using Cisco switches. Internet services are provided through an External router, Cisco PIX firewall, and 6 Mbps Internet connections. The network centre has also been established to accommodate all the servers being used in the university for various purposes. The centre is equipped with IBM and sun servers running latest software’s. All Schools and Colleges in the University are directly controlled by the Centre. The Network Centre provides unlimited usage of Internet facility to all the students and faculty through a 6 Mbps leased line connectivity. Students, Research scholars and Project staff can access Internet through any PC connected to LAN in any Department/Centre. The University provides modern technological services like e-mail, ftp, centralized printing, web, application services, library software to its faculty, staff and students. All faculty members are provided computers in their offices which are connected to high speed servers and the LAN. Network connectivity also has been provided to the students in the hostels and through telephone wire by using IPDSLAM broad band technology so that the students having their own computers and software shall get round-the-clock access to the internet from the hostels as well. This would go a long way in improving the overall quality of our students. Buildings are connected via a building switch to the central switch through optical fibre cable. The University owns and manages its own network. Edge switches in each College building provide Fast Ethernet (100Mbs) connectivity to ports.

The objectives of the UnivNet are:

• To provide Gigabit capacity Campus LAN.
• To interconnect securely with servers outide the SMVD UnivNet.
• To easily secure connection and load balance any server or service across the network.
• To implement dynamic IP addressing capability (DHCP) across the university network.
•  To provide secure network zones in the Network centre that provide network security for like groups of servers (Web, Database etc).
•  To have high speed wireless access in some select location on the campus initially

Campus LAN

The SMVD UnivNet LAN consists of a meshed Gigabit Ethernet core divided presently into two sectors corresponding to the campus layout. Buildings are connected via a building switch to the central switch through wired or wireless means. The University owns and manages its own network. Edge switches in each College building provide Fast Ethernet (100Mbs) connectivity to ports. The current standard for building cabling is CAT6. Wireless access is provided by Cisco LinkSys base stations running 802.11G.

 External & Remote Access

The internet connection is provided by STPI through IPStar Gateway by means of a satellite. Its current capacity is 256 Kbps (Local/International). An additional 2Mbps link is being commissioned by BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd) which will be an all fiber link from Udhampur NIB.

Network Control Centre

The network control centre has been established to accommodate all the servers being used in the university for various purposes. The centre has acquired IBM servers running latest software like Ms Windows 2003 and Red Hat Linux. This centre also serves as the control point for the Internet facility available in the university.

Network Services

The primary services which shall be in-place within the next one year are:

• Web Hosting
• Email
• Storage Management
• Database Management
• Server Housing & Management
• Fibre backbone based Network

Medical Aid Centre

Good Health Care facilities are mandatory for any residential university. Medical Aid Centre is providing services to all the employees and students of the University. Independent premises for Medical Aid Centre with better facilities is in place.

Staff

Medical Aid Centre has two Doctors, two Male Medical Assistants, two Female Staff Nurses, one Laboratory Assistant, one Assistant and one helper.

Facilities:

• OPD – OPD services are available to all the inhabitants of the University.
• Laboratory – A well equipped Clinical Laboratory with Semi-Autoanalyser is functional in Medical Aid Centre.
• A Dental Unit has been set-up having a Dental Doctor assisted by an assistant.
• Physiotherapy Unit – A Physiotherapy Unit with all latest Physiotherapy equipments is functional in Medical Aid Centre.
• Ambulance Service – An ambulance is available round the clock for referral to Government Medical College, Jammu or ASCOMS, Jammu in extreme emergency.
• Immunization – Under Border Cluster Scheme, on every 4th Thursday of month, a team of qualified personals of Health Department visit the campus to provide free of cost immunization
• Ward- Separate wards for male and female indoor patients. 8. Chemist- A well stocked chemist shop is situated next to Medical Aid Centre.

Catering Facility

The catering services for the students, faculty and staff have been outsourced and are being rendered by contractors in the boy’s and girl’s hostels thereby reducing the management related issues for the university. More establishments are expected to be made operational in the near future.  Each hostel has its own Mess facility and this is monitored by a committee consisting of the Hostel Warden, Hostel Caretaker & nominated students from the hostel.  Thus the students have an effective role to play in ensuring that good quality food, tasty and hygenic is available to slla students.  The Committee has the mandate to change the Menu as well as impose fine on the caterer in case of any discrepency.

The University promotes student participation in various  outdoor and indoor games. Students are encouraged to participate in games and  sports activities, which include cricket, football, table tennis, lawn tennis,  volleyball, badminton, weightlifting, multi-gym, basketball. There are plans to  expand the number of games and activities to include hiking and mountaineering,  hockey, swimming and water polo athletics (men and women). Participation of  students in these activities equips them to sharpen their competitive skills  and develop team spirit. In charge Sports is assisted by well qualified  physical training instructors to help the students in developing their interest  in the games and in enhancing their participation standards. The indoor sports complex  has been equipped with table tennis (men and women), badminton (men and women),  weightlifting and multi-gym facilities. A cricket cum sports field is also  available on the campus.

The specialized training programmes will be organized from  time to time to equip/update/enable the students with the latest required  knowledge and scientific research for promoting sports in the university.

The Inter College (colleges under university) Tournaments  have been organized within the campus that has not only created the interest  among the students but also prepared them for the competitions at the different  levels. The high level enthusiasm has been observed among the students of the  university especially in those who have potential for state and national level  competitions. The best teams have been sorted out for various games, sports and  athletic events.

The specialized training programme will be organized from time to time to equip/update/enable the students with the latest required knowledge and scientific research for promoting sports in the university. The Inter College (colleges under university), Inter Hostel and Inter House Tournaments have been organized within the campus that has not only created the interest among the students but also prepared them for the competitions at different levels. The high level enthusiasm has been observed among the students of the university especially in those who have potential for state and national level competitions. The best teams have been sorted out for various games, sports and athletic events. Apart from these, the University also organizes Sports and Cultural Festival ‘Resurgence’ every year. In this the Department of Sports stresses on track and field as well as indoor games.

Sports Infrastructure

• Sports Hall: The  department has set up an indoor Sports Hall with the introduction of the four best quality International standards TT Tables in it. In addition to Indoor  Badminton court the other indoor games like carom, chess etc. are also played  here.
• Gym Centre:  The department has established a small Gym centre in the campus. This centre is  equipped with Parallel bars, uneven bars and weight exercise equipment.  Students are fully benefited by this center in the morning and evening times. However  multi-gym will be launched in the near future.
• Volley ball Court:  The department has also set up three Volley Ball courts (one for girls and two  for boys) adjoining to their respective Hostels in the campus.
• Yoga:  Apart from the  games and sports regular Yoga classes are conducted in the campus to develop  the spirit of meditation among the students. By practicing yoga the students  will learn about the spiritual and moral values of life.

The Department of Sports has the following facilities:

• Basketball Courts
• Tennis Courts
• Volleyball Courts
• Multi-Gym
• Cricket Ground
• Football Ground
• Tracks & Field for various athletic events
• Badminton Court
• TT Tables in various hostels
• Indoor games like Chess, Carrom etc.
• Kho-Kho
• An outdoor sports complex

In near future we have also planned to construct Squash Courts and Badminton Synthetic Courts and install Multi-gym Power Station soon.

The SMVD University is in a scenic location with a picturesque view of Adh Kuwari, which has been a major source of inspiration for the design and selection of the campus. However, the choice of this location also presented many challenges. One such challenge was the creation of an excellent, robust telephone connectivity with state-of-art equipment providing all the modern services to its users. BSNL, the only basic phone service provider so far in Jammu and Kashmir, has an old 128 line telephone exchange, in a small village (Panthal) about seven km from the campus. It was initially very difficult to get a basic phone line as most of the lines were already allocated to villages in the area. However, the University managed to get five telephone lines but on an average only three have been working. Apart from this, the University has to depend heavily on the wireless in local loop (WLL) phones and mobile phones where signal strength, quality of voice and network connection are major areas of concern. Initially the signal was derived from Sanjichat tower. However, considering its long-term needs the University took a prudent decision to invite BSNL, Udhampur to setup a higher capacity digital telephone exchange and a mobile tower in the campus. The land and building for said purpose was provided by the University. This served two purposes, one to have better telephone connectivity for the SMVDU community and secondly to hire a leased line (fiber based) for internet. Once fully functional it will also enable villagers in the adjoining areas to have a better fault-free telecommunication service. Within a period of seven months, the 512 line telephone exchange (expandable RSU of Katra) is all set for launch and the 2000 line mobile tower has started working in the first week of August 2005. Work is now progressing on the cable laying work and is already in the final stages. This has allowed SMVDU to be in a position to hire an all fibre leased line from NIB, Udhampur, which is expected to be commissioned by the year end. When we look back one year, we are able to see the development this area has seen: as soon as the basic telephone exchange is commissioned it will improve the overall electronic communication within and around the University campus. The new exchange will have two new features namely (Integrated Services Digital Network) ISDN, (Caller Line Identification) CLI apart from the other services.

So far as the internal telephone network is concerned, SMVDU has one of the latest up-to-date systems (one of the best in the state of Jammu of Jammu & Kashmir). A Siemens Hipath 4300 series IP ready communication server with 96 analog and 24 digital extensions was commissioned in the month of December 2004. With over 70 analog extensions and a couple of digital extensions already made functional in the academic and residential areas of the university, voice mail facility and voice interactive system.

CENTRAL WORKSHOP OF THE UNIVERSITY

Workshop is an educational platform where science is  translated into technology.  The Central  Workshop of the University plays a key role in imparting basic workshop and  engineering practical training to the students of College of Engineering of the  University. The students of all branches of engineering undergo a rigorous  training during the 1st or 2nd semester of the respective academic programs.

To modernize the workshop training in line with the industry  to suit industrial requirements, the proposed Central Workshop will have the  following well equipped shops and the students will get the opportunity to know  about various manufacturing processes, fabrication methods, materials, and use  modern tools and equipment:

• Machine Shop
• Carpentry Shop
• Sheet Metal Shop
• Smithy Shop
• Foundry Shop
• Fitting Shop
• Welding Shop
• CNC Machine Shop

The students of every branch of engineering will be given  practical training in each of the above mentioned shops by rotation as per the  training schedule. The machine shops (both conventional and CNC) will be more  useful to the students of proposed Mechanical Engineering branche. Also, short  term programs on CNC programming and machining can be conducted which will  generate some funds.

The Central Workshop will have qualified, well trained and  experienced staff and their services will be utilized to undertake repair and  maintenance works of all the Schools of the University. Further, the workshop  will be a central facility for the fabrication of jobs / projects and other  research and development (R&D) activities being carried out in the  University.