IIT- Bhubaneswar to be operational by August

International Institute of Information Technology, Bhubaneswar (IIT-B) would begin its first academic session from the Gothpatna campus on the outskirts of the city in August this year.

IIT-B’s Gothpatna campus, spread over 23 acres, is being developed at an investment of about Rs 50 crore by the Orissa government. The construction work for the IIT-B campus is underway and the institute is expected to be fully operational in the next five years.

"The first session of IIT-B would commence from its Gothpatana campus from August this year. While the institute would be fully functional within five years, the academic as well as administrative blocks will be ready by July this year and the hostels would be ready by August this year", Gopal Krishna Nayak, director, IIT-B told Business Standard.

Once the institute is fully operational, the student intake is expected to go up to 2,000. The faculty strength is set to go up to about 20 by the end of 2009. Apart from the MTech programme, IIT-B would offer a host of other programmes at its campus including BTech, executive programmes and doctoral programmes.

"IIT-B campus would have dedicated reserarch labs for doctoral programmes. Though 23 acres have been earmarked for IIT-B, the institute may require about 40 acres in the future", said Nayak.

It may be noted that the Orissa government has also identified around 100 acres of land at Berhampur for setting up the second IIT in the state. This IIT would be set up with funding from the Centre. The proposed second IIT is a part of the Centre’s plan to set up 20 more IITs across the country.

Source: Business Standard