Kumar in Malda. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, March 25: The ministry of human resource development is setting up a college of technical education in Malda district which will be named after the late A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury.

A team comprising P.K. Bhattacharya and Kalyan Kumar came here today to look at probable sites. Both are from the North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology, a deemed university in Itanagar.

“The ministry has taken a decision to open a college of technical education in Malda and the Planning Commission has approved it,” said Kumar, who is the director of the institute in Itanagar.

The team visited a site in Baishnabnagar, about 30km from here. The plot of a few hundred acres along NH34 is adjacent to South Malda College. “We liked the site. About 300 acres of land will be needed for the new institute. We will now submit a detailed project report to the HRD ministry and once it is approved, apply to the All-India Council of Technical Education for accreditation,” Kumar said.

The director added that Rs 129 crore would be spent on the new college, of which the ministry has already sanctioned Rs 12 crore. “Diploma courses will be on offer and since Malda’s economy is based on farming, the college will focus on agriculture and horticulture along with computer and electronics.”

The college will also have provision for non-formal education. “Students who have not completed secondary education can pursue bridge courses,” Kumar said.

The MP from Malda, Abu Hashem Khan Chowdhury, said HRD minister Arjun Singh was a close party associate of his brother, Ghani Khan.

“After my brother died, Arjun Singh met me in Delhi and asked me to do something in Malda in his name. I told him about my brother’s wish to have a university in Malda and this project was taken up after that,” Khan Chowdhury said.