A five-member delegation led by Raghunathpali MlA Subrat Tarai on Thursday met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar and urged him to choose Rourkela for establishment of the proposed Odisha IIM.
The delegation handed over a memorandum attached with two reports, one from the NIT, Rourkela and another from the Air Authority of India. While the NITR suggests that IIM classes can run from its campus for temporary period, the AAI report informs about air services from the Rourkela Air Strip.
Stating that the steel city has been contributing a lot of revenue to both the State and Central exchequers, the memorandum said Rourkela is the best choice in the State as apart from Central PSU RSP, many other industries and power plants are operating and mineral activities are taking place around the city. If IIM is set up here, the students can take advantage by associating themselves with these industries.
Regarding other advantages, the memo mentioned that while the Howrah-Mumbai rail line gives connects Rourkela to other part of the country, the city is just two and a half km distance from Ranchi and half-a-km distance form Jharsuguda, another major industrial city of the State. Besides, the city has no water problem due to Mandira Dam, Koel and Shankha rivers.
On other hand it argued that Rourkela deserves the proposed IIM as other prominent locations like Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Brahmapur and Khordha are overcrowded with many national and international level institutes like IIT, AIIMS, Xavier University, IIFT and NISER
lastly, the team apprised the Chief Minister that land would not be a constraint for establishment of the proposed institute in Rourkela. The RSP’s unused 200 acres of land can be best used for the purpose.
The other members of team were Subrat Pattanaik, Mihir Ray, Nihar Ray and Sudhir Sundar Ray.