Patna, March 3: A seven-member jury would choose the final design of Nalanda University coming up at Rajgir, around 90km south-east from here.

To be headed by Nalanda University chancellor and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, the jury has two more members from the university’s governing board — Lord Meghnad Desai and N.K. Singh. The other four members are architects of international repute.

“The eight selected firms have been asked to submit the detailed report of the design of the university latest by April-end. After scrutinising the documents, the university’s professional adviser, A.R. Ramanathan, would send them to the jury for choosing one of the designs for the university campus,” Nalanda University vice-chancellor Gopa Sabharwal, who also happens to be the secretary to the jury, told The Telegraph today over phone from New Delhi.

She added that the selection of the jury members was done under the guidance of the governing board of Nalanda University.

The model of the selected design would be put on display for common people for some time in Delhi and Patna as the varsity project has drawn huge attention right from the beginning. One of the major reasons behind this has been the fact that this project is being seen as an effort to revive similar kind of seat of learning which the ancient Nalanda University happened to be and which used to attract scholars from across the globe.

After the final selection of the design of the building, the selected firm would be asked to submit a detailed design. Tenders would be floated for selecting the firm that would carry out the construction work on its basis.

“We intend to complete this process by October-November so that the actual work could be started by the end of the year,” Sabharwal said, adding that the firm whose design would be finally approved would have to set up an office at the site to guide the construction company.

The urgency on the part of Nalanda University to start the construction work by the year-end is understandable because the academic functioning of the university is scheduled to start from the 2014-15 academic session, which commences from July 2014.

To begin with, admissions would be made in two schools — historical studies and ecology and environment studies.

“The buildings would have to be in place before the commencement of the academic work because we have no other option on this front,” said Sabharwal.

The varsity started the process of design competition in December last year when it invited proposals from eligible firms. In order to ensure that only the serious players could send proposals for being selected to the design competition, stringent norms were set. Based on the proposals received, names of eight firms were finalised by a four-member committee headed by Sabharwal.