Patna, April 19: Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal today said the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Patna, would be shifted to the new campus in Bihta within three years.
Sibal, along with chief minister Nitish Kumar, laid the foundation stone for the new IIT-Patna campus at Amhara village in Bihta, about 40km from the state capital. The campus is being set up on 500 acres of land.
Subash Pandey, the registrar of IIT-Patna, said the new campus will house academic and administrative blocks, accommodation facilities for students, teachers and employees, schools, a hospital, underground reservoir, water treatment plant and a pump house.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar, after delivering his presidential address, handed over the documents for 500 acres of land to IIT-Patna director Anil Kumar Bhowmick.
Delivering the keynote addresses, Sibal said: “The real strength of a country depends upon its manpower. Providing quality education to the people is the responsibility of the government. For this, the union government has decided to set up 20 IIITs, eight IITs, seven IIMs and 30 central universities in the country.”
Sibal said the state of higher education in India is poor as compared to developed countries. “In India, out of 100 students enrolled in primary education, only 14 are able to reach universities. In developed countries, it is more than 70 per cent. The gross enrolment ratio of students in higher education is only 14 per cent. For making the gross enrolment ratio 30 per cent, we require 45,000 colleges and 1,000 universities by 2020, up from the 26,000 colleges and 700 universities currently functioning,” the minister said.
Since August 2008, IIT-Patna has been functioning from a building constructed on the premises of the New Government Polytechnic in Pataliputra Colony. IIT-P recently hired the building of Software Technology Park of India where it has labs and some classrooms.
G. Madhavan Nair, former Isro chief and chairman of the IIT-Patna governing body, said the new campus would help develop Bihta as well.
