Bhubaneswar, Sept. 2: The state government has directed the district collectors of Khurda, Cuttack, Ganjam and Sambalpur to identify 200 acres of litigation-free land by September 10 to finalise the location of the proposed IIM.
“We have asked them to identify suitable land in or near Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Ber-hampur and Sambalpur,” said chairman-cum-managing director of the Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) Vishal Dev.
Union finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced in his budget speech that six more IIMs would be set up in the country. As a follow up measure, the Union human resources development ministry wrote to the state government on July 25 to suggest three locations having 200 acres of hassle-free land.
Dev, who also happens to be the state’s industries secretary, said that on receipt of the information from the four districts, the state government would write to the Union human resources development ministry, which in turn, would send central teams to visit the locations and finalise the site.
The state government is struggling to find a suitable location for the proposed IIM in Odisha in tune with the central guidelines, which require a location with 200 acres with air, rail and road connectivity.
Earlier, Dev had admitted that 200 acres of hassle-free and contiguous land in and around Bhubaneswar was not available. However, chief minister Naveen Patnaik has remained silent over the location of the IIM.
The chief minister has been already in a fix over the location of Orissa High Court’s bench. He had written to the Centre to establish the high court bench at any place in south and west Odisha.
Besides, the issue of site selection for the IIM has become a headache for the government as delegations accompanied by political leaders from Berhampur and Sambalpur met the chief minister pressing for the IIM’s location in their respective locality.
Residents of Berhampur have formed the Forum for IIM at Berhampur to take up the cause, while an all-party convention held in Rourkela on Sunday demanded that the IIM be set up in the region.
