Bhubaneswar, May 21: Construction of eight blocks of the administrative and academic buildings, all hostels and multi-storeyed staff quarters is going on in full swing at the permanent campus site of National Institute of Science Education and Research (Niser) near Jatni.

Though construction goes on at a fast pace, the delay in deciding on the allotment of three-acres of land for Niser’s city campus remains the only stumbling block.

As part of the plan, academic blocks will have separate facilities for schools of biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics and computer science, while an auditorium, library and an administrative building will come up around the hill on the Niser campus.

Opposite the academic blocks, nine blocks of the main hostels and staff quarters will be housed. An arterial road will divide the two main locations of the institute. On the 300-acre Niser campus, 278 apartments and 76 independent houses will also be constructed to accommodate the employees.

To be built in phase-I of campus development, these facilities will be ready along with playgrounds, green patches, jogging area and a water body.

Work for the Rs 457-crore phase-I plan had started on July 22 last year. The phase-I plan includes Rs 160-crore residential township and academic buildings and a Rs 130-crore sports complex. Till date the Centre has sanctioned Rs 823.19 crore for the institute.

“The plan is to finish the work within three years from now and the contractor has been told to stick to the deadline. However, seeing the pace of the work, we hope that it will be over at least six months before the deadline,” said registrar of the institute A.K. Naik.

A senior engineer of the construction company, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said in the phase-II of construction, the meditation hall, the second water body and hill landscaping would be included.

“We hope to complete hostels by May-June 2013 and move our students to the Jatni campus. Buses will shuttle students between the campus and the present academic building on the Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar (IoPB) campus. Some staff quarters will also be ready so that both the students and employees can start campus life,’’ said a senior Niser official.

City centre plan

The Niser authorities are, however, not happy with the Odisha government stand on providing three-acres for the institute’s city centre campus. The institute authorities want the city centre campus to be located in the capital’s institutional area.

In fact, the department of atomic energy is ready to built a 1,500 capacity auditorium, three mini auditoria, a guesthouse with modern amenities and undertake beautification drives on Niser’s city centre campus.

The state government first allotted land for the on May 25, 2009, at Samantapuri, but when Niser officials visited the grounds of Odisha State Armed Police to take possession they were not successful.

Later, a plot was allotted in a residential area at Chandrasekharpur. But Niser authorities wants the city centre campus near other institutes and thus the demand for alternative land.

“A land near IoPB will help at least seven other institutes — Utkal University, Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, IoPB, Indira Gandhi Open University, Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for Development Studies, Council for Higher Secondary Education, Odisha. Therefore, we should be allotted a land accordingly. A land on the Utkal University campus in front of Apollo Hospital can also be considered,’’ said the registrar.

Niser director T.K. Chandrasekhar has written to the chief secretary on February 29 detailing the difficulties of Chandrasekharpur land. He said that apart from being in the residential zone, it was 20km away from the airport and 15km from railway station and “it cannot fulfil the sole objective of constructing a city campus since the permanent campus of Niser at Jatni is almost equidistant from Bhubaneswar’’.

“We hope the state government will consider these facts and allot a land for our city centre campus at a central locations as it will be of great help to other research institutes as well,’’ the Niser director said.