Siliguri, May 26: Rabindra Bharati University (RBU) is keen to set up extension centres at Kalimpong and Mungpoo, the places where Rabindranath Tagore had stayed during his sojourns to the hills.

The vice-chancellor of the varsity, Karunasindhu Das, said he had submitted proposals to the government regarding the takeover of the museum at Mungpoo and the introduction of skill-development courses at Chitrabhanu in Kalimpong.

“Apart from a campus of the university in north Bengal, we want to set up extension centres in the two places in the hills, with which Gurudev had very strong connections,” Das said. “Through these centres, we want to reach out to the people of the hills, with whom the poet had shared an emotional bond.”

The VC said the university wanted to start a course on cultural tourism for the local youths from the museum. He added that the varsity had already held talks with the government at various levels on the takeover and the expansion of the museum.

Tagore had came to Darjeeling for the first time in 1882. Since then, he had made about 11 visits to the hills — four to Mungpoo, a place with which he had a special relationship. The reminiscences of his stay at Mungpoo were published by Maitreyi Devi in her book Tagore by Fireside (Mungpoote Rabindranath in Bengali).

According to Das, the technical education department of the university was keen on offering some skill-development courses to the local people at Chitrabhanu.

The 43-year-old institute is housed in a cottage, which was once the summer home of Tagore, at Atisha Road. Chitrabhanu provides training in disciplines like drawing, painting, designing, housecraft and music to women between the age group of 18 and 30 years. Of late, there have been few takers for the institute.

Das said there were also plans to translate the works of Tagore into Nepali.

“Although there have been some translations in the past, a major chunk of Gurudev’s works are still not known to the people of the hills,” Das said. “The spirit of unity and other philosophies advocated by Tagore are relevant today like never before and we want to take his views closer to the people of the hills.”

Das is hopeful that RBU’s north Bengal campus would be able to offer courses as early as possible. “Since the construction of our own campus at a site far away from the madding crowd will take at least three years to complete, we do not want to wait until then,” he said.

“We intend to start with some basic courses from this new academic year at Rahul Sankrityana Bhawan near Siliguri,” said Das.