COIMBATORE: Keeping in mind that availability of land has become a scarce commodity, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) constituted a high level committee to determine land requirement for Central higher educational institutions.
The MHRD takes into consideration higher education institutions like Central Universities, Indian Institute of Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, National Institute of Technology and Indian Institute of Information Technology.
As per the present norms, the land requirement for these institutions varies from 100 acres for IITs, 200 acres for IIMs and IISERs to 300 acres for NITs and 500 acres for Central universities. The land is required to be free from all encumbrances.
“These norms were determined a long time ago when land was available in abundance. However, with the burgeoning population and consequent expansion of cities, land has increasingly become a scarce commodity. State governments have found it difficult to acquire land, leading to inordinate delay in setting up Central higher educational institutions,” the MHRD order says.
The committee will be headed by MHRD secretary Sathyanarayan Mohanty and is to submit its report with recommendations within two months of the date of its first meeting.
The committee will assess and recommend ideal and optimal requirement of land for establishing different categories of higher educational institutions and to recommend norms and criteria for determining the land requirement in different locations of the country, taking into account the topography and class of city or town.