Sambalpur: The strength of the Indian Institute of Management here will increase from existing 60 to 120 seats from the next academic session.

The institute will be shifted to a new building on the Sambalpur University campus in Burla.

The institute authorities will take possession of the building after completion of the electrical connection, said the director of the management institute, Mahadeo Prasad Jaiswal.

At present, the Indian Institute of Management, Sambalpur, is temporarily functioning in the building of Silicon Institute of Technology near Sasan.

Students are not showing much interest in joining the institute here as it is located in an isolated place and lacks of proper communication.

The new building will have five classrooms and 150 rooms, which will be used for hostel purpose. After taking over possession suitable interior design and decorations will be made, the director said.

The management institute, an autonomous public business school, was one of the 8 institutes announced by the Government of India in 2014. On the recommendation of the Odisha government the ministry of human resource development deputed a high-level team to visit and select the location.

The institute was registered under the Society Registration Act on August 19,2015. The state government has allotted 237 acre for its permanent campus at Basantpur, near Sambalpur university.

The construction work has started and it may take 2 years to complete, Jaiswal said.

In these two year, students devoted 8 weeks as summer project in different business and industrial establishments.

Admission process for the second session of the institute has already began through CAT. The formalities will be completed before May 2018 and in June selected candidates will be admitted, he said.

Jaiswal said the placement of the institute was excellent, 48 students, including 9 women students, got 69 offers from 34 reputed companies. Twenty-one students got two offers.

The institute is the third among the new IIMs in the country that started in 2015.

In the past three years, the institute has justified that Sambalpur was the best location for its establishment, as various mineral-based industries are located here which help the students to acquire practical knowledge.