The Institute of Life Sciences in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, March 7: The state government will transfer ownership of five acres on which the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) stands in the city to the premier research institution free of cost.

A communication gap between the general administration department (GAD) and the department of science and technology (DST) of the state government has delayed the transfer for nearly 12 years.

The GAD had issued a payment reminder note for Rs 2.5 crore to the institute five years ago regarding the transfer. Last year, the GAD increased the amount to Rs 38.50 crore, citing escalation in the current market price.

Earlier, while functioning under the state science and technology department, the ILS land record was with the DST as it was the institute’s parent department.

The ILS was set up as a state-funded institute in 1987 in a rented accommodation at Saheed Nagar. It moved to its present premises near Kalinga Hospital in 1999 and later became a fully funded entity under the department of biotechnology (DBT) of the Union ministry of science and technology.

As applied biotech research needs large-scale funding, chief minister Naveen Patnaik had written a letter to the Centre, requesting to take it over from the state. In 2002, the DBT took over the ILS.

But, the land record was not transferred from the DST to the DBT.

“The GAD owns all lands in the city. But till the ILS was under the DST, the land records were with it. After the transfer, we wrote to the government for transfer of the land ownership as well. But, it was not easy as the DST has to return the land ownership rights to the GAD and then it has to transfer it to the Centre (DBT),” said an ILS official.

ILS director Balachandran Ravindran said: “Lack of land ownership records used to worry us. Now, we are relieved.”

Besides, the GAD approved the DBT’s request to have some more land for its second campus as it had come through the chief minister’s office last year.

The ILS has three acres near the Buddha Jayanti Park at Neeladri Vihar. “We had sought five acres and they proposed it in two patches. But, we are happy with the three-acre plot at Neeladri Vihar as we are planning for vertical expansion and will start construction in the next fiscal,” said an ILS official.