At a time when many construction projects in the government sector have overshot their deadlines by months, a permanent office building of the regional centre of the All- India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) here has become a reality in a record time of 180 days. The State Government had initially allotted office space for the centre in the MBA Block of the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram (CET). The centre started functioning in February this year. During its inauguration, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had assured the AICTE that if the Council came forward to construct its own building, then the State Government could allot land free of cost. “The AICTE on its part had assured the Chief Minister that if land was allotted, the permanent office building could be set up within a record span of six months,” AICTE director Abdul Rahiman said. The land was allotted near the Golden Jubilee auditorium of the CET and construction work began on June 11, 2013. The Central Public Works Department (CPWD) was entrusted with the construction work with a budget of Rs 8 crore. The official inauguration of the building is scheduled on December 30 and will be jointly done by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Union HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju in the presence of Minister of State for HRD Shashi Tharoor. Education Minister P K Abdu Rabb and AICTE chairman S S Mantha will be present. AICTE is the apex body regulating the technical education in the country. Since its inception, Kerala fell under the South Western Regional Office in Bangalore. With the establishment of the new regional centre in Kerala, stakeholders will be spared the inconvenience of travelling all the way to Bangalore for various official matters, AICTE officials said. Efforts of Shashi Tharoor, who is the sitting MP from Thiruvananthapuram, had resulted in the decision to establish an AICTE office here and later on its development as an exclusive regional office, they said.