Bhubaneswar, June 23: The state government has released the second-phase of funds under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (Rusa) to various universities.

The Rs 20 crore sanctioned by the government for Utkal University, Berhampur University and Sambalpur University will be used to set up new hostels and academic buildings.

 A sequel to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, the Rusa is a flagship scheme that was launched by the ministry of human resource development in 2013. Under it, the Utkal University has received Rs 10 crore for the construction of two 300-bed hostels for girls and boys, an academic block and a foreign language centre. The foreign language centre will teach five languages including Arabic, Japanese, French, Spanish and Russian.

Around Rs 5 crore will be spent to set up a centralised instrumentation centre at the varsity. The centre, a brainchild of Utkal University vice-chancellor Ashok Das, will have all major instruments at a centralised place. It will be a well-planned foundation that will cater to the needs of the academic community,” said Das.

The Berhampur University received Rs 5 crore, which will be used to build a girl’s hostel and extend the library building.
The Sambalpur University will utilise the Rs five crore sanctioned to build two hostels, academic blocks for pure science and social science departments, and extending its library and administrative building.

The government will provide infrastructure grants worth Rs 100 crore to five universities including Utkal University, Sambalpur University, Berhampur University, Biju Patnaik University of Technology and Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology.