IIT Khargapur: More in the pipeline

New Delhi, March 1: The government has given the go-ahead to set up Indian Institutes of Technology in Kerala and Himachal Pradesh, but will not announce the decision for fear of politics interfering with the choice of sites.

The human resource development ministry has granted “in-principle” approval to IITs at Palakkad (Kerala) and Mandi (Himachal), but is yet to officially inform even the states’ governments, senior officials said.

The Prime Minister’s Office — smarting from the political bickering triggered by an earlier announcement that three IITs would come up in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan — has advised the ministry to remain silent this time.

HRD minister Arjun Singh is expected to touch upon the possibility of an IIT in Himachal while replying to a question in Parliament early next week, sources said. But he will not make any commitment and will not even mention Kerala.

“The news of an IIT in Himachal, though not communicated formally, has been leaked to some government officials there. But the minister will not commit to it,” a source said.

Finance minister P. Chidambaram had first announced the Centre’s intention of building new IITs in last year’s budget. These, the government had said, would supplement the seven existing IITs in building India’s technical expertise.

Almost immediately after the announcement, the HRD ministry had been flooded with requests from chief ministers seeking IITs for their states.

In his Independence Day speech last August, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said eight IITs were in the pipeline.

Proposals from Andhra, Bihar and Rajasthan were considered the best and cleared by the HRD ministry by September. The decision was conveyed to their chief ministers.

But selecting the sites in two of them has proved a bigger headache.

Hours before Chidambaram delivered his budget speech yesterday, Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje wrote to the HRD ministry, insisting that the new institute must come up in Kota.

Kota, Raje has said, is home to numerous institutes that train students for the IIT entrance test and other competitive examinations.

The letter, which reached the ministry yesterday, follows a month-long tussle between Raje and the Centre. While the chief minister has been insistent on Kota, an HRD team that surveyed the proposed plot returned unhappy.

The ministry had offered two alternatives, prompting Raje to accuse the Centre of playing politics.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had proposed a site near Patna. But HRD officials called it “inadvisable” as it suffers from a “major water-logging problem”.

Nitish has now recommended a second location, which the ministry is considering, the sources said.

A site near Hyderabad has been finalised — the only one to be cleared for a new IIT.

Five IITs are up for grabs after the ones in Andhra, Bihar and Rajasthan, and 15 states are vying for them, the officials said.