Bhubaneswar/ New Delhi, Oct. 28: The proposed Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Odisha is likely to have its temporary campus here, while its permanent campus, in all likelihood, would be located either at Tarboi near Argul or at a place between Jatni and Khurda, official sources said.

The institute may operate for the time being either from the transit campus of IIT or that of the National Institute of Science Education and Research (Niser). Both the institutes are currently housed in temporary campuses, which they are expected to vacate shortly, according to sources.

The development comes on the day the Centre set a 15-day deadline for the governments of Odisha, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to suggest possible sites for IIMs as well as temporary campuses where classes can start next July.

Both the Niser and IIT will shift to the their new campus near Jatni, about 25 km from the city. While the process of shifting of Niser has already begun, the IIT is expected to shift to its new campus by the end of the year.

The state government has found that the existing facilities at these temporary campuses are suitable to start operations of the IIM before a site for permanent campus is decided.

Sources at the secretariat said the state government had almost decided to set up its permanent campus near Bhubanewar because of the logistics involved in the project. In its guidelines for selection of location, the human resource development ministry had made it clear that the proposed site should have air and rail links.

“A team of central government officials will visit the proposed locations and take a final view,” said a state government official.

However, given its political compulsions, the state government is yet to formally announce the name of the site for the permanent IIM campus.

Leaders from different regions of the state have been pressuring the government to set up the premier institute on their soil. The collectors of Sundargarh, Koraput, Cuttack, Khurda, Sambalpur and Ganjam have already identified places and have sent their proposals to the government.

The HRD ministry today held a meeting in New Delhi to discuss about the location of the proposed institutes as the new IIMs will start from the next academic session. Union Higher education secretary Satya Narayan Mohanty chaired a meeting of directors of six old IIMs and secretary in-charge of technical education of the six states and reviewed the progress in setting up of the elite institution.

The HRD ministry wants the states to be ready with their proposals before the Common Admission Test (CAT) for entrance into IIMs is held on November 16 and 22, an IIM director said.

The ministry suggested that the temporary campus should ideally be located in the same city where the permanent campus is planned.

Another IIM director said the new institutes would be mentored by the nearest old IIMs. For example, IIM Calcutta is likely to mentor IIM Odisha, IIM Bangalore is likely to mentor IIM Andhra Pradesh and IIM Ahmedabad is likely to mentor IIM Maharashtra. It is not clear which of the remaining older IIMs — Lucknow, Kozhikode and Indore — will mentor which of the other three.

“We have mentored new IIMs in the past also. Our faculty members will manage the new institute till the time the new institute appoints its own faculty. The examinations and all academic activities will be conducted by the mentor institute,” the director said.

At the meeting today, each state government except Punjab suggested three or four possible sites for the permanent campus.

The secretary, employment and technical education & training department, government of Odisha, Chandra Sekhar Kumar, said: “The government of India has asked for commitment from the state. The state government has already zeroed in on possible sites for business school. The temporary campus will be identified soon.”

An IIM director said that attracting good faculty would be the major problem for the new institutes. The seven IIMs started during the last six years are suffering from faculty shortage up to 50 per cent.

“The new institutes do not offer the academic ambience. Second, the pension provision for employees of new institutes is different from the old institutes,” the director said. The older institutes give pension after retirement, while employees of the new institutes have to contribute to the pension fund.