<p>After many changes of location—mostly due to popular protests—the campus for the Indian Institute of Technology in Goa would be set up in Sanguesh sub-district, located along the Goa-Karnataka border, said Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday.</p>.<p>Sawant was speaking to reporters and told them that a government land tract of seven lakh sq m had been identified in the south Goa sub-district, where the institute’s campus would finally be set up over the next few years.</p>.<p>“The IIT project will come into reality in Sanguem. There is no need for a government to make announcements about everything every time. There is no need to practically say that an IIT project will come up here,” Sawant said.</p>.<p>Sawant’s aversion to making an outright announcement about the finalised location of the new IIT campus in Sanguem could be due to the history of debacles that successive state governments faced in the form of protests, in the wake of similar announcements.</p>.<p>Goa was allotted an IIT by the central government in 2014; since then, the elite institute has been functioning from a temporary campus shared by the Goa Engineering College and the National Institute of Technology in Farmagudi village, in south Goa.</p>.<p>In 2020, the BJP-led government zeroed in on Melaulim in north Goa as the site for the new IIT campus—after two other potential locations in Sanguem and Canacona were shot down following protests by locals, who alleged that ruling politicians influenced the identification of the campus location.</p>.<p>In January last year, the Goa government was forced to scrap the proposed IIT campus at Melaulim, after protests by local villagers turned violent. Villagers of Melaulim and adjoining villages claimed that land acquisition processes were conducted in haste while identifying the IIT-campus site, which they said would lead several local residents homeless and deprived of their ancestral land.</p>.<p>“Since the last four years (Sawant became chief minister four years ago, we are trying for an IIT campus at various places,” Sawant said. “People will not come to know about it now, but once the project is opened, an educational environment will be created. Businesses will get a boost. 5,000 plus staff, students will stay in this area. Hence business activity will prosper.”</p>.<p>Sawant also said that a team of IIT officials would be visiting the site soon, after which an agreement would be signed between the state government and the IIT over finalisation of land for the institute.</p>
<p>After many changes of location—mostly due to popular protests—the campus for the Indian Institute of Technology in Goa would be set up in Sanguesh sub-district, located along the Goa-Karnataka border, said Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday.</p>.<p>Sawant was speaking to reporters and told them that a government land tract of seven lakh sq m had been identified in the south Goa sub-district, where the institute’s campus would finally be set up over the next few years.</p>.<p>“The IIT project will come into reality in Sanguem. There is no need for a government to make announcements about everything every time. There is no need to practically say that an IIT project will come up here,” Sawant said.</p>.<p>Sawant’s aversion to making an outright announcement about the finalised location of the new IIT campus in Sanguem could be due to the history of debacles that successive state governments faced in the form of protests, in the wake of similar announcements.</p>.<p>Goa was allotted an IIT by the central government in 2014; since then, the elite institute has been functioning from a temporary campus shared by the Goa Engineering College and the National Institute of Technology in Farmagudi village, in south Goa.</p>.<p>In 2020, the BJP-led government zeroed in on Melaulim in north Goa as the site for the new IIT campus—after two other potential locations in Sanguem and Canacona were shot down following protests by locals, who alleged that ruling politicians influenced the identification of the campus location.</p>.<p>In January last year, the Goa government was forced to scrap the proposed IIT campus at Melaulim, after protests by local villagers turned violent. Villagers of Melaulim and adjoining villages claimed that land acquisition processes were conducted in haste while identifying the IIT-campus site, which they said would lead several local residents homeless and deprived of their ancestral land.</p>.<p>“Since the last four years (Sawant became chief minister four years ago, we are trying for an IIT campus at various places,” Sawant said. “People will not come to know about it now, but once the project is opened, an educational environment will be created. Businesses will get a boost. 5,000 plus staff, students will stay in this area. Hence business activity will prosper.”</p>.<p>Sawant also said that a team of IIT officials would be visiting the site soon, after which an agreement would be signed between the state government and the IIT over finalisation of land for the institute.</p>
