Kapil Sibal, (right) Nitish Kumar

New Delhi, July 13: Motihari or Gaya — the three-year battle between the Centre and the Bihar government on where the state’s first central university should be located has finally been resolved.

Human resource development (HRD) minister Kapil Sibal announced that the state would get two central universities, one in Motihari and another in Gaya, a solution that academic circles hailed as the “beginning of a new era in higher education” in Bihar.

“We have decided to grant two central universities for Bihar. They will be known as Central University of Motihari and Central University of Gaya. Land is already available in Gaya while in Motihari, the university will come up on over 300 acres of land on the side of the national highway. The land acquisition is going on in Motihari,” Sibal said.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who had been rooting for Motihari as the location for the central university, welcomed the decision. He said he spoke to Sibal over the phone 10 days ago on the issue. “During my meeting with Sibal in New Delhi two months ago, I asked him to grant central university status to Patna University too as it is one of our oldest demands,” Nitish said in Patna.

Nitish agreed to provide all help and assistance for setting up the two universities at Gaya and Motihari, for which the HRD ministry will bring an amendment to the Central Universities Act, 2009, in Parliament.

“Two central universities in Bihar will herald a new era in higher education. Both universities, one in the northern part and one in the southern region, will provide anchor and be a benchmark for quality higher education,” Central University of Bihar (CUB) vice-chancellor Janak Pandey said.

The present CUB, which is running from a temporary campus in Patna, will be shifted to the proposed university campus in Gaya. The central university of Motihari will get its vice-chancellor and other staff as soon as the land is acquired by the state government.

In political circles, the grant of the two universities to Bihar is being linked with the JD(U) breaking ranks with the BJP and supporting the UPA’s presidential candidate, Pranab Mukherjee. The JD(U) has also given ample indication that it would also support UPA’s candidate for Vice-President.

Bihar was supposed to get just one central university. However, the issue of a campus for CUB has been mired in controversy since 2009 after its creation, along with 15 other such institutions, under the Central Universities Act.

While the Bihar government has been pushing for Motihari as the location for the CUB campus, the HRD ministry was not keen on that site. The ministry, especially Sibal, was of the view that locating the university in an inaccessible area like Motihari would not be beneficial as the institution may not attract good faculty. The ministry had identified 300 acres of defence land on the outskirts of Gaya, which has both air and rail connectivity.

Both Sibal and Nitish have exchanged strong letters disapproving each other’s stand in the recent past.

However, the solution route was opened after Nitish met Sibal at his residence two months ago and decided on a twin-campus formula.

A team of officials from the HRD ministry has visited the proposed site in Motihari, along NH-28, and approved it. The team was convinced in view of improvement in the road network between Patna and Motihari.

“We were opposed to Motihari because of access. The road connectivity has improved and it takes just two-and-a-half hours to reach Motihari from Patna. The issue of access does not exist any more,” Sibal said.

However, two universities may not mean any additional financial grants from the Centre this year. The initial financial commitment of Rs 240 crore, which was meant for CUB, would be divided for the two institutions, sources said.