Campus The University campus at Pantnagar is spread in an area of 12,661-acre (51.24 km2) which makes it the second largest university in the world, in terms of contiguous area. Before 2002, the university owned16,000-acre (65 km2), out of which 3,339-acre (13.51 km2) was transferred to State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand (SIDCUL) for developing an Integrated Industrial estate, thus leaving present 12,661-acre (51.24 km2) with the university . Moscow State University is built vertically and has a larger total floor area but occupies a smaller piece of land. Berry College occupies 28,000-acre (110 km2) of contiguous land, and Paul Smith's College occupies 14,200-acre (57 km2) of land in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, but neither is a university. Duke University occupies 8,709-acre (35.24 km2), but they are not contiguous. The United States Air Force Academy has a contiguous 18,000-acre (73 km2) at its disposal, but it is not a university. Dartmouth College, with a large land grant, owns more than 50,000-acre (200 km2),but only 269 acres (109 ha) of those are part of the campus. Stanford University owns 8,183-acre (33.12 km2), which makes it the third largest university in the world, in terms of contiguous area. Sewanee: The University of the South occupies 13,000-acre (53 km2) in its "Domain", making it largest contiguous university campus.
The university campus is located at a distance of 250 km from Delhi in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand. The nearby towns are Rudrapur (16 km), Haldwani (25 km) and Nainital (65 km). TwoNational Highways- NH 87 and Bareilly- Nainital highway touch the campus. Pantnagar Airport, operated by Airports Authority of India is located in the campus, 2.5 km west of main administrative building. Two railway stations of North Eastern Railways- Pantnagar (IR Code PBW) and Haldi Road (IR Code HLDD) are located in the campus at a distance of 4 km (east) and 3 km (west) respectively from administrative building. University shuttle service, local rickshaws, auto-rickshaws and matador vans connect various parts of the campus. Pantnagar is a purely residential university and comprises an independent township in itself. Population of Pantnagar, prior to establishment of Industrial estate was 35,820 (Census, 2001). Pantnagar is a part of Pantnagar- Gadarpurassembly constituency. The 'Concentric semicircles' or the 'rising sun' plan of the campus-centre was a brainchild of Department of Architecture of Illinois University. Pantnagar is often seen as a small and remote tourist location.
