The Indian Institute of Technology in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 2: Absence of a director and a registrar at the helm at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) here is affecting its day-to-day affairs.

While former director Madhusudan Chakraborty’s term ended in June with no substitute being appointed so far, registrar B.K. Ray’s term, too, came to an end on November 28.

In September, the Union human resource development ministry had directed a senior professor of the institute, Sujit Ray, as the acting director.

However, with the institute planning to shift to its permanent campus at Argul on the city outskirts by the next academic year, the absence of two important officials has left a lot of file works pending.

Sources at the institute said the selection of directors of the three IITs — Bhubaneswar, Ropar and Patna — would be held simultaneously.

Over 90 candidates, including three senior professors from IIT Bhubaneswar have applied for the director’s post at the institute.

The selection-cum-search committee, headed by human resources development minister Smriti Irani, will shortlist the applications and make the appointments.

However, controversy over the selection of the search committee has led to the delay, said official sources.

Similarly, about 50 applications have been received for the post of IIT Bhubaneswar’s registrar.

The IIT Bhubaneswar is one among the 16 set up under the Institutes of Technology Act.

The institute initially started functioning from the campus of IIT Kharagpur on July 23, 2008, and shifted its operations to Bhubaneswar on July 22, 2009.

At present, the institute is operating from eight locations within the city and plans to move to its permanent campus at Argul from the 2015-16 academic session in a phase-wise manner.

The institute plans to set up the Bay of Bengal Coastal Ocean Observatory (a joint centre of the ministry of earth sciences) within its Innovation Centre for Climate Change on the Puri coast of the Bay of Bengal.

The institute is also working towards establishing a centre of excellence in collaboration with reputable local institutes such as Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, and Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar, the authorities said.

However, the programmes are getting delayed as there is no authority to give a go-ahead to these projects.