BHUBANESWAR: As the IIT-Bhubaneswar at Argul is facing a series of bottlenecks, Chief Secretary BK Patnaik on Saturday directed departments concerned to ensure that required infrastructure facilities are put in place for completion of civil works within the schedule. While the national institute requires 935.44 acres of land, the Government has given advance possession of 595.52 acres. Of the land identified for the project, over 300 acres are coming under the forest category. Since the land identified for the institute is coming under Khurda and Puri districts, the district collector of Puri has been asked to locate 149 acres of Government land to substitute the forest land. As the diversion proposal for the forest land is under process, the Khurda district administration is looking for 153 acres as a substitute for the forest land.
The Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) is in the process of acquiring 16.21 acres of private land for the institute. With most of the new IITs, including the one at Argul, are way behind the schedule, the Ministry of Human Resource Development sought a fresh timeline from the State Government. The Ministry reviewed the progress of the new IITs at a meeting in Delhi on June 16.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik reviewed the progress of the IIT-B at a meeting here on June 30 and directed the Chief Secretary to sort out the problems faced by the institute.
The meeting revealed that 8-km stretch of boundary wall out of the total length of 19 km has been completed. The boundary wall construction was halted as it was found that 14 houses under Indira Awas Yojana in Podapada village were coming within the campus.
For supply of electricity to the institute, a 132/33 KV grid sub-station will be set up for which ` 37.42 crore has been sanctioned. The proposed sub-station will be connected to grid at Karadagadia. A comprehensive water supply project is planned for IIT-B, Infocity-II and NISER at an estimated cost of ` 122.29 crore. At present, the water need is met from eight production wells.While Khurda and Puri police are providing security, the Chief Secretary asked the Home Department to set up a police station at Argul.
Industries Secretary T Ramchandru, Rural Development Secretary SN Tripathy, Home Secretary UN Behera, IDCO CMD Priyabrata Patnaik and other senior officers were present.