Patna: Union minister justice, electronics and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday laid the foundation stone of the extension centre of National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NIELIT) in Buxar.

The extension centre that would come up on the premises of government industrial training institute, Buxar, would be set up at a cost of Rs 10.93 crore.

Speaking on the occasion, the Union minister said the Centre and the state government were committed to work towards empowerment of state youths by providing them opportunities to skill themselves and the extension centre would help in meeting the goal. The Buxar centre of NIELIT would be an extension of the Patna centre, which operates from its campus in Bihta.

A small unit of NIELIT was first set up in Patna at Biscomaun Bhavan in 2008 and it was made fully functional in 2015 when 8,000 square feet of built-up area was provided to the centre in the same building in 2015. In February this year, the NIELIT centre was shifted to its permanent campus in Bihta on a 15-acre plot.

The centre at present offers long-term courses in electronics, computer science and information technology along with various short-term non-formal courses and also have residential facilities for boys and girls.

The minister said the establishment of the NIELIT extension centre in Buxar was part of the Centre's commitment to Bihar for catering to skill requirements of the state at the regional level.

The construction of the centre at the ground of ITI-Buxar would be funded by the Central government at an estimated cost of Rs 10.93 crore. This centre will have state-of-the-art infrastructure with latest smart classrooms and labs. The Bihar government has provided an acre of land for the NIELIT extension centre in Buxar. This will train over 1,155 students in long- and short-term courses such as 'O' level, CCC, BCC, programming languages, multimedia in three years of its establishment.

Prasad said in Bihar, the growth rate of IT-enabled services was high and hence there was need for more skilled manpower in the related area.

Speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi highlighted the different programmes of the state government in the area of skill development.

Union minister of state for health and family welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey and NIELIT director-general Jaideep Kumar Mishra too aired their views on the occasion.

Mishra told the participants that the state had entrusted many projects to NIELIT, including those related to employee training programme, advanced ICT among others.