Setting up IIT in Orissa : State identifies land near Banki,Cuttack.

Pragativadi,BBSR:
The state government has identified 1200 acres of land in between Dampada and Talabasta under Banki sub-division in Cuttack district for setting up of the Indian Institute of Technology while it has selected the College of Engineering and Technology (CET) in Bhubaneswar to start the academic session of the said institute instead at Kharagpur.A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level meeting presided over by industry minister Biswabhusan Harichandan at the State Secretariat here on Saturday.Among others, chief secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy, principal secretary, industry Chinmoy Basu, vice chancellor of Biju Patnaik University of Technology Prof Omkar Mohanty and senior officials of the concerned departments were present at the meeting.
Briefing newsmen after the meeting, the minister said that the Centre had given a condition that the institution should be located closer to the airport, National Highways and railway station.The selected site is only 62 km from the Bhubaneswar airport and would take one hour drive from the state capital to reach there, he said, adding that though the Centre wants only 600 acres of land for this purpose, the state wants to give more land to make it a world-class institution.
In order to begin classes from this year, he said the Government has decided to provide the campus of College of Engineering and Technology (CET), Bhubaneswar, to start classes of IIT from the current academic year.Eighteen quarters will be converted to students' hostel within 15 days, he said, adding that students would be allowed to use their laboratory after 2 PM.Some arrangements would be made to this effect so that the students would use all the facilities available in the CET.
On the question of availability of required number of faculties, he said that the guest lectures would be arranged from the Institute of Mathematics and NISER also.
We have already met all the conditions laid down by the Centre.We hope that the IIT in Orissa would begin functioning from the current session, he said.
However, the state government and its officials are still uncertain about the exact number of students that are going to take admission this year.We don't have got any clear information at official level from the Centre, said Basu, adding that as per the unconfirmed students over 100 students are likely to get admission in IIT, Orissa.