The Delhi-based Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) will be starting its Calcutta operations in about a month. IIFT will open its doors on July 27, at Salt Lake Sector V, where it has been allotted a temporary address.

The country?s premier foreign trade institute will start off in the city with 60 seats, soon to be increased to 120.

?We are looking forward to kick-starting our Calcutta campus in July. There has been an amazing number of enquiries about the course and the institute, and Bengal is now a promising place to be in. The first batch will have one section of 60 students, who will have access to all the resources available on the Delhi campus,? said director Prabir Sengupta.

The state government has allotted seven acres behind Ruby Hospital, off EM Bypass, for the institute to build its campus. ?Construction is likely to start in 2006 or by early 2007 and should be complete by 2009,? said Sengupta.

The Union commerce ministry has allotted Rs 10 crore for the setting up the Calcutta campus.

The foreign trade institute will offer its flagship programme, the two-year MBA in international business, along with a host of other distance and part-time programmes.

These include a three-year MBA in international business for working executives and an 18-month executive masters in international business for executives with a minimum of five years? work experience.

?Students here will study the same course curriculum as their counterparts in Delhi. A well-stocked library, computer laboratories and access to online databases will be made available to them,? pointed out Sengupta.

A recruitment drive to expand the external as well as internal faculty is about to be launched. ?Also, faculty members from the Delhi campus will be coming down to Calcutta on a regular basis,? revealed Sengupta.

IIFT has also tied up with a Tanzanian institute in Dar-es-Salaam that will offer the IIFT degree.