Classes at new campus of IIT in Odisha capital from Jul 22

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, May 6:

While the process of shifting of the IIT-Bhubaneswar to its new campus at Aragul in the Odisha capital has already begun, regular classes would start at its new campus from July 22 this year, sources in the institute said.

The institute was set up in Bhubaneswar on July 22, 2008 with the mentorship of IIT, Kharagpur.

According to sources, some departments of the second and third year batch students would be shifted to the new campus by June-end while about 400 students, staying at other temporary campuses, would be shifted to the hostel in the new campus.

Regular classes of the students enrolled in the current academic session would begin at the new campus from July 22. The new students would stay in the new campus.

Meanwhile, chief secretary GC Pati, at a recent review meeting, has asked the concerned departments to complete the pending work of the new campus before May 15.

A senior official of the IIT-Bhubaneswar said students had to be put up at seven temporary campuses in the city as the new campus was not completed. The studies of the students were badly hampered in the absence of a permanent campus.

“In fact, we had started the process of shifting to the new campus since long. But as some major infrastructure works like construction of roads and supply of water to the institute were not complete, we could not move to the new campus earlier. However, with the assurance by the Public Health Department (PHD) and the Public Works Department (PWD), we have now decided to shift to the new campus on July 22,” he said.

The review meeting, presided over by the chief secretary, decided that a bore well would be set up inside the IIT campus for supply of water to the institute since water supply to the campus from Naraj on PPP mode would not be possible before 2018-19. Besides, there would be emergency provision for supply of drinking water through water tankers.

While the construction of the bore well would be completed by June 30, the boundary wall of the institute would be completed before May 15, sources said.

It has been decided to set up a police outpost inside the campus very soon for which the IIT-Bhubaneswar authorities would provide necessary infrastructure.

Apart from this, the state government has also decided to engage retired policemen and private security guards for the safety of the students, teachers and the staff of the institute.

The IIT authorities would submit a list of 10 private security agencies to the police commissioner after which the private security guards would be deployed inside the campus on the advice of the police commissioner.

Besides, installation of street lights from the IIT campus to NISER campus would be made very soon for which the Energy department has agreed to provide a one-time corpus fund.

The IIT-Bhubaneswar, which has adopted a village in Banki sub division in Cuttack district and is working for its overall development, has planned to adopt Aragul village under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, sources in the institute said.

It may be mentioned that the construction of IIT-Bhubaneswar campus had begun on 936 acres of land at Aragul on February 12, 2009.

Though the construction of the campus was scheduled for completion in four years, some of the works of the institute are still pending.