The Union Cabinet has approved a Rs 7,002 crore plan for construction of permanent campuses for six new IITs including that of Bhilai in Chhattisgarh to be completed by March 31, 2020.
Each campus will have facility for housing 1,200 students, beginning from the academic year 2020-21, an official press release informed.
Currently, these institutions are functioning from temporary campuses with a total strength of 1,530 students. After construction of the campuses, this strength will go up to 7,200.
The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely in his Budget Speech 2014-15 had announced establishment of five new IITs in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir, Goa and Chhattisgarh. Further, in the Budget Speech 2015-16, establishment of an IIT in Karnataka was announced.
In pursuance to the Budget announcements, the academic sessions in IITs at Tirupati and Palakkad started in 2015-16 and in IITs at Dharwad, Bhilai, Jammu and Goa in 2016-17, from their respective temporary campuses.
The Detailed Project Report (DPR) for construction of the permanent campuses was prepared by a team from Mentor Institutes of these IITs, according to which Rs 20304.88 crore were solicited for construction of the permanent campuses over a period of 7 years.
The EFC also gave in-principle approval for the Phase-B at a cost of Rs 13306.46 cr. over a period of 4 years beginning 2020-21. Approval for Phase-B will be taken up after reviewing the progress under Phase-A. The funds remaining unspent out of those approved for temporary campuses will be subsumed in the cost of Phase-A.
Notably, the new IIT in Bhilai is also being offered 10 acres of free land by Chhattisgarh Government for setting up an ‘Industry Interaction Centre and Research Park’ at Banjari village in Naya Raipur.
A decision to this effect was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Raman Singh in August last year.
On the other hand, it may also be recalled that top brains currently being nurtured in the country’s premier business and technology schools will soon also get assignments to prepare urban development plans for civic bodies in Chhattisgarh.
The Chhattisgarh Urban Administration and Development Department has decided to invite interns comprising mainly students and researchers from IITs and IIMs who would help in preparing better plans for management of water supply, low cost housing, sewerage management, solid waste management, poverty eradication, study of various State and Central schemes related to vehicular traffic management in urban areas.
Under the AMRUT Mission the nine municipal corporations- Raipur, Bilaspur, Durg, Bhilai, Korba, Rajnandgaon, Raigarh, Jagdalpur and Ambikapur- have been selected wherein ‘Shahar Sandhan Yojna’ (City Research Scheme) will be launched.