Centre fast-tracks shifting of IIT-Patna

The Narendra Modi government is keen on establishing a new Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Bihar before the state goes for Assembly polls later this year.

An Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), which has been operating from temporary campus in Bihar, will also be shifted to its new campus in Patna by the end of this month or in the first week of July, with the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry fast-tracking the process.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi may visit Bihar to inaugurate the institute’s permanent campus, sources said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition at the Centre had announced setting of the elite B-school in the state last year. Presenting his maiden Union Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had also proposed setting up of new IIMs at Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Odissa, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

With elections in Bihar getting closer, sources said, HRD Minister Smriti Irani has asked her officials to speed up the process and roll out the proposed institute at the earliest.
The fast-tracking of process for establishment of the proposed IIM in Bihar is driven by the BJP’s political objectives in the poll-bound state.

“Efforts are on to make the institute operation soon from a temporary campus in Patna,” sources said, adding that IIM-Indore will mentor the institute. The setting of the proposed B-school in Bihar has so far been stuck in the finalisation of location for the the institute. While Bihar government was for setting up of the institute in Gaya, Magadh University in the district refused to part with its land for the purpose.

The HRD Ministry was hesitant on the choice of the location for proposed institute but a site selection committee put its weight on the Bihar government’s proposal to set up the institute in Gaya. The committee had also visited a possible location in Patna.

The HRD Ministry was hoping to start all the six new IIMs from this academic session. The IIMs even mentioned on its website of combined aptitude test (CAT) that academic session of the six new IIMs would start from 2015-16. But, the fate of the new institutes remained unclear due to finalisation of location for permanent campuses.

If the proposed IIM is set up in Bihar, it will be an exception as the HRD Ministry is contemplating not to start proposed new IITs  in Jammu, Chhattisgarh and Goa and IIMs in Punjab and Odisha this year as the respective state governments have failed to provide suitable land for their campuses.