ROURKELA: Months after then chief secretary SC Mohapatra assured to revive the Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) at Rourkela, no visible progress seems to have taken place on campus particularly in the field of academics.
In two decades of its existence, the only technical varsity of Odisha is focused on serving as an affiliate university with little achievement to call its own. Sources said over the past one decade the BPUT added some building infrastructure at its headquarter campus at Chhend Colony here though the overall pace for infrastructure development remains tardy.
After a lot of dilly-dallying, the government in September 2022 allowed the varsity to revise the academic courses. Accordingly, the BPUT had started admission processes for four years BTech degree programmes and also simultaneously had done away with the less demanding five Post-Graduate MTech programmes with introduction of five year integrated (BTech+MTech) dual degree courses under the aegis of the Centres for Advanced Post Graduade Studies (CAPGS).
The integrated dual degree courses are offered in five branches including BTech in Civil Engineering and MTech in Structural Engineering, BTech in Mechanical Engineering and MTech in Machine Design, B.Tech in Electrical Engineering and MTech in Power Systems Engineering, BTech in Electronics & Communication Engineering and MTech in Signal Processing & Communication and BTech in Computer Science & Engineering. For both BTech and integrated dual degree courses the combined seat intake is little over 200.
A new boy’s hostel with 600 capacity is also under-construction at a cost of about Rs 43 crore.
The CS during his visit in 2021 had said the BPUT would be revived with posting of professors and teachers and introduction of new technical courses and skill development activities. With availability of the stadium, sports activities of the BPUT would also be enhanced, he had added.
Vice-chancellor Amiya Kumar Rath said efforts are underway for recruitment of faculty members and non-faculty members, adding a proposal has also been sent to the government for sanctioning required posts for under-graduate programmes.