Bhubaneswar, April 7: Decks were cleared for the enactment of a unitary law to facilitate the establishment and regulation of a private university to be set up by yoga guru Ravishankar.

The draft bill was cleared by the state cabinet, which was chaired by chief minister Naveen Patnaik, today.

The existing law allows the establishment of only government-run university in the state.

The government has, therefore, drafted a unitary law to facilitate self-financed and self-governed private university to be set up by Sri Sri Ravishankar Vidya Mandir Trust.

Chief secretary Ajit Tripathy said the bill would be introduced in the Assembly in the next session. There will be a provision in the bill for representation of the government in the management board through a senior officer.

Sri Sri Ravishankar Vidya Mandir Trust had signed an MoU with the government in December, 2006, to set up a world-class, multi-disciplinary university at Naraj near Cuttack.

The MoU was signed in the presence of the yoga guru and the chief minister.

This would be the first private university to be set up in Orissa for which draft legislation has been formulated.

Meanwhile, the government has allotted 185.97 acres at Naraj on the outskirts of Cuttack for the project.

The university would have a core campus comprising academic and non-academic buildings to cater to the needs of 15,000 students, 1,500 faculty and matching number of non-teaching staff.

Basic science, humanities, engineering, medicine, pharmacy, business management, law, bio-science, art, culture and Vedic studies, ayurveda, aviation and maritime training will be on course list.

The campus will house a sports complex, recreational facilities, utility centres and meditation halls.

The university would be fully residential with hostels for faculty as well as students. Necessary infrastructure such as roads, communication, water, sewerage, effluent treatment system, power distribution, medical and banking facilities will be provided by the proposed university management in a phase-wise manner.