Sambalpur, June 21: There is still hope for the proposed Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Odisha, admitting students for the current academic session.

An indication to this effect came from the four-member central team, which is visiting the city to select a location for the institute. The team will submit its report by Thursday.

Shailendra Kumar, who is leading the four-member site selection committee, told the media if their recommendations were accepted by the Union government, classes could commence from the coming academic session. "If the admission commences this academic session, it will start with 70 students instead of 140," Kumar said.

The committee will submit its report to the Union government by Thursday. Shailendra Kumar said the committee had sought some more inputs.

The team today visited a proposed plot at Neeldungri under Jujomura block, which has been identified as a probable site for the permanent campus. It also visited the ITI building at Rasanpur near Maneswar on the outskirts of the city. They checked the rooms and other facilities that are available at the building. Official from the district administration accompanied the team to both of the sites.

Earlier on Saturday, the committee had visited the proposed land for the permanent campus at Basantpur near Goshala under Dhankauda block and Brahmanipali under Rengali block.

The team had also visited some locations, which have been identified by the state government as probable temporary campus sites on Saturday. These locations include the Sambalpur University Institute of Information Technology at Burla, Silicon Engineering College on the outskirts of the city and the Government Polytechnic located at Rengali. They inspected the facilities available at the proposed sites of the permanent and temporary locations.

The site selection committee advanced their visit by five days since their trip was scheduled on June 25.

Pawan Kumar Singh of IIM, Indore, which is the mentor institute of the proposed IIM in Odisha, said: "We visited some sites yesterday. We have come to visit this site today. We will evaluate this site thoroughly and then take a final decision."

Asit Tripathy, the secretary at the department of technical education and training, government of Odisha, said: "We visited all the tentative sites and the report would be submitted to the government of India by Thursday."