Bhubaneswar, Aug. 29: The Biju Patnaik University of Technology today finally winded up its operations at its camp office in Bhubaneswar and shifted to its main campus in Rourkela.

Now onwards, all the academic and administrative activities of the Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) will be carried out from the university headquarters in Rourkela.

The move is believed to help the varsity function better. Students in the capital had opposed the shifting of the camp office.

“The office here was always crowded with students and daily work was hampered because of regular protests. The already short-staffed institute found it very difficult to manage the unruly situation. Students locked up the gates for every petty reason and this disrupted work,” a senior official said.

“In most cases, the students protested at the behest of people with vested interest of political parties, thus badly affecting the work of the varsity,” he added. The shifting of the camp office has been marred by controversy following vehement opposition by a section of varsity students.

Students had also gheraoed the residence of minister Pratap Kesahari Deb, who is in charge of the technical education department.

They had called off their agitation only after the minister assured them that the camp office would function from Bhubaneswar once a week.

On Saturday, around eight students of the university filed a public interest litigation urging the Orissa High Court to intervene in the matter.

The students sought the help of the high court to prevent the authorities from going ahead with the “arbitrary” and “illogical” decision of the university vice-chancellor, who had decided to shift the campus to Rourkela.

The students have contended that 104 of the 156 colleges affiliated to the university are located within a 60-km radius of Bhubaneswar.

They had also argued that the university should have offices at three revenue divisions (western, southern and coastal) for the benefit of the students, said Dwarika, a student.