IIIT Dharwad by this year: Minister

The Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Dharwad, will be a reality this year, Minister for Information Technology S R Patil has said.

Replying to a question by S V Sankanur, (BJP), in the Legislative Council on Monday, the minister said the IIIT would come up temporarily at the IT Park in Hubballi. Later, it will be established on 61 acres and 6 guntas of land at Tadasinakoppa near Dharwad after obtaining necessary permission from the Centre.

The project, according to the minister, aims at providing human resource to the IT sector in the days to come. It will be set up at an estimated cost of Rs 128 crore. “The IIIT will be set up on Public Private Partnership model, where the Centre’s share will be 50 per cent (Rs 64 crore) and the State’s share will be 35 per cent (Rs 45 crore) and the industrial sector will be contributing about 15 per cent, which amounts to Rs 19 crore,” the minister explained.

The State was supposed to provide land for the IIIT. As the Centre rejected the land identified for the project earlier, now the site selection committee has identified the government land at Tadasinakoppa, he added.