Campus guide · IIT Roorkee · Uttarakhand
IIT Roorkee's main campus is spread over 356 acres, according to the institute, not the 365 you'll see on Wikipedia. It is also by some distance the oldest IIT campus: the institute traces itself to Roorkee College in 1847, on the banks of the Solani and the Ganga canal. Hostels here are called Bhawans. This is the sourced guide to its size, its three campuses, the full Bhawan list, and what students actually recommend seeing.
How big is the IIT Roorkee campus?
In the institute's own words: "The campus at Roorkee is spread over 356 acres of landscaped lush greenery" (IIT Roorkee geography page (archived)). Wikipedia gives 365 acres while citing that same page, which looks like a transposed digit. The same official page describes the other two campuses: "The Department of Paper Technology is located in a 25 acre campus at Saharanpur. A 10 acre campus is being developed as an extension centre at Greater Noida". The Greater Noida campus opened in 2011, in Knowledge Park-II.
| Fact | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Main campus | 356 acres, Roorkee (Uttarakhand) | IIT Roorkee geography page (archived) |
| Saharanpur campus | 25 acres, 50 km away (Paper Technology) | IIT Roorkee geography page (archived) |
| Greater Noida campus | 10 acres, Knowledge Park-II, opened 2011 | IIT Roorkee geography page (archived), IIT Roorkee Time Capsule |
| Founded | Roorkee College, 1847; classes from 1 January 1848 | IIT Roorkee Time Capsule |
| University / IIT | University of Roorkee 1949; IIT on 21 September 2001 | IIT Roorkee Time Capsule |
| Students | 10,300+ | IITR by Numbers |
From Roorkee College to IIT
IIT Roorkee's homepage puts it this way: "IIT Roorkee, which started as Roorkee College in 1847, was the first engineering college in Asia" (IIT Roorkee). That is the institute's own claim. The town itself was small: in 1842, "Roorkee was still a village on the banks of river Solani", and construction of the Ganga canal had just started (IIT Roorkee Time Capsule).
The college was renamed after its founder, James Thomason, in 1853: "Sir James Thomason, L T Colonel of the government of NWP dies and the College was renamed as Thomason College of Civil Engineering". It became the University of Roorkee in 1949 and was converted into the seventh IIT on 21 September 2001. The main building took Thomason's name in 2015.
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IIT Roorkee hostels (Bhawans): the full list
"Bhawans! That is how we define our dwelling places on the sprawling IIT campus" (IIT Roorkee hostels page). The official list:
| Type | Bhawans |
|---|---|
| Boys (10) | Azad, Cautley, Ganga, Govind, Jawahar, Rajendra, Radhakrishnan, Rajiv, Ravindra, Malviya |
| Girls | Himalaya, Indira, Kasturba, Sarojini |
| Married (6) | G.P. Hostel, M.R. Chopra, Azad Wing, D.S. Barrack, A.N. Khosla House, K.I.H. |
| Co-ed (1) | Vigyan Bhawan |
Source: IIT Roorkee hostels page. The page says "Three Girls' Hostels" but names four.
Year-wise hostels are gone: "A year-wise hostel system, which once existed on the campus, has recently given way to a mixed hostel system where students of all years and branches of study reside together" (IIT Roorkee hostels page). For late nights there is the Shri Balaji Cautley Bhawan Cafe, which by the institute's own description "operates once all canteens done serving, from 2 A.M to 2 P.M." (IIT Roorkee facilities). First-year hostel and mess charges for 2026-27 are ₹7,500 and ₹21,750 per semester; see our IIT hostel guide.
Places worth seeing
- James Thomason Building, the main building. The State Bank branch on campus is inside it.
- Mahatma Gandhi Central Library, set up in 2007 (IIT Roorkee Time Capsule).
- Sports facilities: the institute lists "three sports stadiums, a modern swimming pool, yoga bhawan" (IIT Roorkee geography page (archived)).
- The Ganga canal, which runs past Roorkee and shaped the college's founding.
Students' own recommendations, from a visitor's guide posted on r/IITRoorkee:
"To start, the main building, known as the Thomson Building, is a prominent landmark and a great spot for photographs. ... Another beautiful location is the Ganga Canal, which is worth checking out." (r/IITRoorkee)
"I would like to add Rajeev Bhawan's rooftop canteen too. The coolest canteen amongst them all." (r/IITRoorkee)
"Outside campus, you can go to Solani park via E rickshaw where you can see the beauty of two Ganga canals" (r/IITRoorkee)
More on IIT Roorkee: placements 2025-26 and Thomso 2026, the October cultural fest.
From IIT Roorkee? Rep your campus with IIT Roorkee merchandise: hoodies, tees, varsity jackets and mugs, shipped across India.
By Arun Raghav S · Co-founder, IITian Vibes · Facts retrieved 30 September 2026 from the linked institute pages. Photos from Wikimedia Commons under the licences shown. Corrections to hello@iitianvibes.com.