The campus site of National Institute of Fashion Technology at Mithapur. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Dec. 11: The new campus of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) at Mithapur area would miss its March 2012 completion deadline at least by one-and-a-half years, creating a roadblock for the introduction of new courses at the institution.

At present, the NIFT, Patna, offers two courses — the four-year degree course in fashion designing and two-year postgraduate course in fashion management.

It functions from its transit campus at Udyog Bhavan, Gandhi Maidan.

The NIFTs in New Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Bangalore offer courses in seven to eight disciplines.

The NIFT, Patna, was set up in 2008. But the construction work of its campus started in 2010 because of administrative hurdles.

Now, the twin obstacles on the way of NIFT’s new campus are its low land and dispute over the plot.

The construction work of the new campus stopped for three months during the rainy season, as the site is very low. Tussle between the NIFT administration and Chanakya National Law University (CNLU) over land stalled work for a few more months.

Satish Chandra Jha, the director of NIFT, Patna, told The Telegraph: “The NIFT Patna campus was supposed to be ready in 2012. But it would be delayed by one-and-a-half years because of slow construction work owing to low land and some disputes over the plot.”

Jha said the dispute over the land between CNLU and NIFT had been settled.

At present, only 11 per cent of the construction work has been completed.

Kishore Babu, an official of Hyderbad-based KSP Project, which is executing the construction work, said: “The upcoming NIFT campus will be a state-of-the-art building with an eco-friendly campus.”

The NIFT campus would sprawl over 6 acres. The estimated project cost was Rs 45 crore. But NIFT sources said the expenses would jack up to Rs 66 crore because of the delay in the construction work.

A senior teacher of NIFT said: “As we are functioning from the transit campus, we could not start many courses which we wanted to. Several courses which are in the pipeline will be started once the institute gets its permanent address.”

A student of the fashion design institute said: “Our biggest hurdle is we are functioning from the transit campus. We face difficulties in organising fashion shows or workshops for exhibiting our products. Moreover, many people do not know that there is a NIFT centre in the city. Once we get our permanent campus, we will host fashion shows and workshops inviting students from other institutes.”

The NIFT campus will have separate blocks for academics, administration, staff residence and hostels.

There will be one open-air auditorium also with a seating capacity of around 200 people.

In May 2012, the first batch of students will pass out from NIFT, Patna, graduating in fashion design. The second batch of fashion management will pass out in 2012.

At present, around 180 students are studying at NIFT, Patna. The strength will go up to 1,000 once the institute gets its permanent campus.