BHUBANESWAR:The expert committee, constituted by the Ministry of Steel, to revive the Biju Patnaik National Steel Institute (BPNSI), has recommended that BPNSI should be upgraded into an institute of national importance for research and education in knowledge areas on par with the IITs. BPNSI, the panel suggested, must function as an autonomous body under the Ministry with an industry-driven curriculum.
Recommending a two-tier campus infrastructure, built jointly by the Centre, State and the industry, the main campus must offer BTech, MTech and PhD courses in different disciplines relevant to steel and allied industries. It must have central research and referral facilities, testing and certification centre as well as research and consultancy centre.
The satellite campuses should be located close to upstream and downstream manufacturing hubs and must offer diploma and polytechnic courses, the panel said.
The expert committee constituted in July 2014 presented its report to Union Minister of Steel and Mines Narendra Singh Tomar at Udyog Bhawan in New Delhi on Tuesday.
As per the proposal, the main campus, when fully operational, will be spread over 500 acres with a maximum student strength of 5,400. It would be equipped with state-of-art working and living facilities while the satellite campuses are planned over 20 acres. The Odisha Government, sources said, is keen to offer 500 acre in Infocity- 2 for the BPNSI.
Tomar said the suggestions made by the Committee are holistic and necessary to provide a pool of knowledge and skill for achieving 300 million tonnes of production by 2025.
The BPNSI was established in 2002 to promote excellence in steel industry. The panel includes industry veterans like Chairman SAIL CS Verma, Chairman JSW Steel Sajjan Jindal, former Vice Chairman of Tata Steel B Muthuraman, Directors of IIT, Kharagpur and IIT Kanpur, National Institute of Advanced Studies and CSIR and Jt. Secretary (Steel) Syedain Abbasi.