Bhubaneswar, May 29: A delegation comprising alumni of the University Engineering College (UCE), Burla, urged the chief minister today to recommend the establishment of the proposed IIT on its college premises.

Recently, the Centre sanctioned the proposal to set up an IIT in Orissa and sought suggestions from the government on the location of the proposed premier institute.

Members of the delegation, led by state commerce and transport minister and MLA Jaynarayan Mishra, argued that the UCE, which is the state’s oldest engineering college, would be the ideal location.

The college campus is spread over an area of 250 acres and another 500 acres are available in the vicinity, the delegation pointed out.

Rubbishing the claim that an IIT necessarily needed an airport near it or required to be connected by air, the delegates pointed out that the Kharagpur IIT had no air link.

They recalled and reminded all those gathered of chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s letter to the former Union HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi on January 27, 2004, recommending the conversion of the college into an IIT.