Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Monday announced that the infrastructure facilities for the four regional centres of Anna University and its constituent engineering colleges would be upgraded at a cost of Rs 150 crore. Making a suo motu statement in the State Assembly, the Chief Minister said the regional centres were set up in Tiruchy, Coimbatore, Madurai and Tirunelveli to monitor the functioning of colleges and to help students get details about higher education. She said buildings would be constructed for Madurai and Coimbatore regional centres at a cost of `30 crore while hostels for students for Madurai, Coimbatore and Tirunelveli centres would be built at a cost of `10 crore.
The CM allocated `10 crore for constructing hostels for the students of the engineering colleges at Dindigul, Ramanathapuram, Thoothukudi and Nagercoil, all affiliated to Anna University.
The allocations for other colleges made by the Chief Minister were: `5 crore for engineering colleges at Pattukottai and Panruti and `10 crore for 12 other affiliated colleges of the university.
12 New Colleges
The Chief Minister also announced the setting up of 12 new Arts and Science colleges in Tamil Nadu.
Recalling that her government had already announced setting up of three government engineering colleges, 22 university constituent arts and science colleges and 10 polytechnic colleges, she said one engineering college and 22 university constituent colleges had already been started. “Two government engineering colleges and 10 polytechnic colleges will start functioning soon,” she said. Stating that she had already announced setting up of eight government arts and science colleges from 2013-14, Jayalalithaa said, “Now, four more arts and science colleges will be started from this year.”
She added that an arts and science college for women would be started at Karimangalam.