Rajasthan uses a balanced approach in choosing locations for its national institutions

Update on 27th April 2011: The Central University location has been changed to Bander Sindri near Ajmer and only 80 kms from Jaipur. The Innovation University (previsouly referred to as National University) aiming for world class is now pushed for Jaipur. [Times of India]


The panel set up by the CM of Rajsthan has picked the following places to recommend to the central government for the various national institutes and universities coming up in Rajasthan. (From a Times of India report and another Times of India report)

  • IIT : Jodhpur
  • IIM: Udaipur
  • National University aiming for world-class: Ajmer 
  • Central university: Bikaner.

The committee also recommended:

  • a "futuristic" heritage conservation and museology centre in Jaipur
  • an institute of Food Technology in Hadoti region of Kota

Currently the following national institutions exisit or are being made in the following places in Rajasthan:

  • NIT: Jaipur
  • LNMIT (private but top-notch): Jaipur
  • National law School: Jodhpur
  • AIIMS-like institution (being made): Jodhpur

The institutions are nicely distributed between various cities of Rajsthan, although people of Jaipur and Kota are not happy. The population of these locations are:

  • Jaipur (World Gazetteer 2009): 3.1 million (has inetrnational air connectivity)
  • Jodhpur (World Gazetteer 2009): 988K  – (332 kms from Jaipur; has air connectivity)
  • Udaipur (World Gazetteer 2009): 457K – (400 kms from Jaipur; has air connectivity)
  • Ajmer (World Gazetteer 2009):  604.7K – (131 kms from Jaipur)
  • Bikaner (World Gazetteer 2009): 624.6K – (321 kms from Jaipur)
  • Kota (World Gazetteer 2009): 823 K (242 kms from Jaipur)

In contrast in Orissa the distribution of national institutions are more Bhubaneswar centric. Following is the status:

  • IIT: Bhubaneswar
  • NISER: Bhubaneswar
  • AIIMS-like (being made) : Bhubaneswar
  • National Law University: Cuttack (part of Bhubaneswar metroplex)
  • IIIT (state-funded) : Bhubaneswar
  • National University aiming to be world class: Bhubaneswar
  • Vedanta University (private): Puri
  • NIT: Rourkela
  • Central University: Koraput
  • IIIT (centrally funded): state wants it in Berhampur; center has identified as Bhubaneswar

Unfortunately, one of the reason given behind the above selection is the lack of connectivity and the size of places. Following is some information on that.

  • Bhubaneswar (World Gazetteer 2009): 1.67 million  (has airport but no inetrnational connectivity)
  • Rourkela (World Gazetteer 2009): 551 K  (no air connections) – 334 kms from Bhubaneswar
  • Berhampur (World Gazetteer 2009): 403 K (no air connections) – 160 kms from Bhubaneswar
  • Koraput-Jeypore-Sunabeda: 200K+ (no air connections) – 499 kms from bhubaneswar
  • Puri (World Gazetteer 2009): 185K – 60 kms from Bhubaneswar 
  • Sambalpur (World Gazetteer 2009): 258 K (no air connections)  – 321 kms from Bhubaneswar
  • Jharsuguda-Belpahar-Brajarajnagar: 200 K (no air connections) – 374 kms from Bhubaneswar; 50 kms from Sambalpur

For the future, following are some of the steps that Orissa government needs to urgently take regarding developing more larger urban areas and having the national institutions more evenly distributed:

  • Make sure the centrally funded IIIT is established in Berhampur
  • Establish functioing airports in Jharsuguda, Rourkela and Koraput at the earliest
  • Push for international flights to Bhubaneswar
  • Push for upgradation of UCE Burla (Sambalpur area) to an IIEST (Indian Institute of Engineering Science & Technology)
  • Push for the establishment of a branch of IGNTU (Indira Gandhi National Tribal University) in Phulbani
  • Push for the establishment of IIM outside of the Bhubaneswar area
  • Push for the establishment of a centrally funded KBK Inst of Engineering and Technology (along the lines of SLIET and ABAGKIET) in Kalahandi or Balangir.
  • Push for upgrading another medical college (Berhampur or Sambalpur) to AIIMS level.
  • Push for establishing NID in a location outside of Bhubaneswar
  • Push for establishing NIPER in a location outside of Bhubaneswar
  • Push for a BITS Pilani campus in a location outside of Bhubaneswar

9 comments June 12th, 2009

Orissa government plans a government engineering college in Kalahandi near Bhawanipatna

Following is from tathya.in.

Finally KBK region will have a Government sponsored engineering college.

And this will be established here in the district Headquarters of Kalahandi.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has given green signal to this effect.

The Industries department has moved the files so that the institution receives approval of AICTE.

The authorities are eying to enroll students in 2009-10 in four streams, once the AICTE approval is availed.

The Collector has been asked to locate 30 acres of land near Bhawanipatna.

At least 10 acres of land is required for an engineering college but keeping in future expansion, the State Government has asked the Collector Kalahandi to do the needful.

Chief Minister has asked the Finance department to provide Rs.4 crore from the Orissa Contingency Fund (OCF).

Recently the OCF has been allowed to enlarge its kitty to Rs.400 crore.

There are 63 engineering colleges in the state and 2 in KBK. 

Most of the engineering colleges are in Khurda district, which houses 34.

There are no government engineering colleges in KBK and keeping this in view the Chief Minister has approved the Kalahandi Engineering College in this part of KBK, said an official.

This engineering college will be constituent college of Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT).

6 comments December 20th, 2008

Land identified in Koraput for Central University; Branch of IGNTU proposed for Phulbani

The following is from Samaja.

It is high time people of Kalahandi go to the CM for higher education institutes in Kalahandi. In particular they should demand a state university and a centrally funded BPIET (Biju Patnaik Inst of Engineering and Technology) in the line of SLIET and ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury IET.  The people of Kalahandi need to be strategic in terms of what they can get at this time. For example, UCE Burla supporters initially, for several years, were going after a deemed university status. It was going very slowly. Once they switched to demanding for state unitary university status, things happened fast. Similarly, people of Kalahandi should realize that they should not put all their egg in one basket.  IMHO, shifting of the location from Koraput to Kalahandi after the location is announced by the CM and mentioned in the assembly is unlikely, and I hope I am wrong, but a new central university in Kalahandi has a low chance of happening soon. So as a practical matter people of Kalahandi should, for now, ask for a state university and a BPIET. They don’t have to retract their demand for a central university; that can continue.

16 comments December 19th, 2008

Story behind the the ABA Ghani Khan Institute of Engineering and Technology

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

… The human resource development ministry has decided to open nine new NITs instead of 10, replacing the tenth with an institute to be named after A.B.A. Ghani Khan Choudhury.

The Union cabinet approved the Ghani Khan Choudhary Institute of Engineering and Technology on November 20, allocating Rs 97 crore for the project.

The institute will be based in Malda, the late Congress leader’s bastion.

… a cash-strapped government has quietly decided to scrap one NIT to accommodate the institute named after Choudhury without spending more.

… Unlike the NITs, which have a national character and admit students from across the country, the Ghani Khan Choudhary Institute will primarily cater to local students, sources said.

“It will not be an NIT and will not even be run like one. The idea, pushed by the late Congress leader’s family, was not to have a national institution but a memorial to Choudhury. And that’s what this institute will be,” a source close to HRD minister Arjun Singh said.

… The Ghani Khan Choudhary Institute will not be run by a central law.

Choudhury’s family members, it is learnt, have met Arjun at least twice to urge him to start the institute. A source in the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that it, too, had been petitioned by the family.

…But the HRD ministry, the sources said, decided instead to propose the Ghani Khan Choudhary Institute in place of one NIT.

In 2009 if there is a friendly government in the Center Orissa should try for Biju Patnaik Instutute of Engineering and Technology along the above lines.

2 comments December 17th, 2008

Centrally funded non-NIT/IIT engineering colleges in various states; need a KBKIET in Kalahandi

Besides IITs and NITs some centrally funded engineering colleges are being established by the central govt. in various states. This includes the Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology in Punjab and Central Institute of Technology, Kokrajhar, Assam.

Following is a PIB report on a similar institute being established in Malda, West Bengal.

The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for establishment of Ghani Khan Choudhary Institute of Engineering & Technology, as a Centrally funded institution in Malda, West Bengal on the modular pattern of teaching as adopted by Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering & Technology (SLIET), Longowal, Punjab. The Institution will offer courses in Engineering and Technology to cater to the various manpower requirements of the region, with special emphasis on courses relevant to the local population such as in food technology & sericulture.

Initially, the Institution would start with Certificate level courses leading to Diploma, Degree and Post-graduate levels later.

The total project outlay of the Institute will be around Rs. 97 crores.

Orissa should ask for a similar engineering college to cater to the backward KBK+ districts and located in Kalahandi.

Koraput will have the central university; Branch of IGNTU is being pursued in Kandhamala. So an engineering college like SLIET should be located in Kalahandi. The institute can be called KBK institute of Engineering and Technology (KBKIET).

 

November 20th, 2008


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