Bhubaneswar, June 25: The Centre has preferred Basantpur site for the permanent campus of the IIM to be set up in Sambalpur district.

Technical education minister Sanjay Das Burma said the state government had identified three sites in Sambalpur district for the permanent campus. "Of these, the central team, which had visited Sambalpur on June 20 and 21, preferred the site at Basantpur," he said.

The state government had identified a government land located at Brahmanipali in Rengali block, another site at Basantpur near Burla and the third one at Kutrajori in Jujumera block. The Basantpur site is located over 231 acres of government land. It is 5km from Hirakud railway station, 55km from Jharsuguda airport and 20km from Jamadarpali airstrip. It has also connectivity to the Calcutta-Mumbai National Highway. The state government had also identified it as the most suitable site.

The site selection committee has also chosen the campus of Silicon Institute of Technology, a private engineering college at Sasan, and the Sambalpur University Institute of Information Technology for temporary site, said Das Burma.

"We will extend all co-operation to facilitate the establishment of both the permanent and temporary campuses," he said.

Sambalpur additional district magistrate Jyoti Kumar Lakra said: "We will immediately start land alienation after the site for the permanent campus gets finalised. The process of handing over the campus for the temporary site will start after the official communication is received."

With the clearance by the Union cabinet yesterday to the proposal for establishment of the IIM in Sambalpur, decks are now cleared for the beginning of the admission process into the prestigious B-school sanctioned for the state.

Earlier, it was announced that the six new IIMs, sanctioned by the Centre last year, would commence their first academic session from 2015-16. Each institute will start with an intake of 140 students in the postgraduate programme (PGP) courses and expected that the annual intake will increase to reach a level of 560 students each year by the end of seven years.

The PGP in management would be the flagship programme of these institutions. Admission to the PGP will be through the open and competitive Common Admission Test (CAT) being conducted by the IIMs.