Site visit team for IIT Bhubaneswar concludes their visit; picks Argul
Update: Excerpts from a report in Kalinga Times.
Aragul near Jatni has been finally chosen as the place for setting up of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar.
A four-member Central team sent by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development selected Aragul after visiting four different places.
The team comprised Ashok Thakur, Additional Secretary in the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development; Damodar Acharya, Director of IIT Kharagpur; A.K. Dey, former Director of IIT Mumbai; and K. Narayan Rao, Secretary of All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
The place selected is 12 km from Bhubaneswar airport by road and four km away from Jatni railway junction.
Following are excerpts from a report in tathya.in.
Ashok Thakur is impressed with Argul.
The Chairman of the Site Selection Committee for the IIT-Bhubaneswar found the site near Jatni a ‘nice’ one.
… The State Government has identified Argul near Jatni and Malipada near Khurda.
Both are in Khurda district.
Secondly Ramdaspur near Naraj and Dampada near Banki in Cuttack district were also identified for the purpose.
Mr.Thakur himself visited Argul on 25 December and expressed satisfaction over the place, said sources.
It is 891 acre of land out of which 500 acres are readily available.
Very near to the Capital city and well connected with rail and road.
Institutions like NISER, various engineering colleges and other institutions are coming up in the near by area.
This place was favored by the State Government for the IIT-Bh as the most suitable one.
It looks very likely that Argul will be chosen for the IIT site. But the others sites would soon come into play; especially for the world class central university (national university).
December 25th, 2008