IIT Indore gets clearance to have its own campus

Indore: The land row for the proposed IIT Indore’s campus has been settled now, thus paving the way for the three-year-old premier institution to have its own campus with an estimated cost of Rs 2,000 crore here. The Madhya Pradesh government has allotted 501.6 acres land for IIT Indore at Simrol, about 25 km away from here, of which 303.6 acres was a revenue land and 198 acres forest land, official sources said today. [caption id=“attachment_286302” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Reuters”]  [/caption] The state government has also given all the necessary clearances to the institute for its proposed campus, they said adding after all the permissions, the forest land was recently transferred to the IIT, while process for the allotment of revenue land is in final stages. IIT Indore had run into forest clearance hurdles after the Centre’s Forest Advisory Committee, the apex experts body clearing forest allotments in the country, had earlier rejected the Madhya Pradesh government’s proposal to allot the forest land for establishing the IIT. The body had wondered why the IIT was being located on the forest land and had urged the state government to look at alternate sites. The IIT is currently functioning out of a temporary campus within Indore. However, last year former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had allowed diversion of the forest land for setting up a 500-acres permanent campus. Now, as per the plan, the permanent campus of the IIT will be constructed with an estimated cost of Rs 2,000 crore and for phase I, the Centre has already allocated Rs 760 crore. If all goes as per the plan then the IIT Indore will have its permanent campus in another three years. Former HRD Minister late Arjun Singh had laid the foundation stone of IIT Indore on 17 February, 2009 near Indore, thus making it the only city in the country to boast of having an IIT as well as an IIM, both. At present, IIT Indore is running its classes in the streams of Electrical, Mechanical and Computer Science from the different rented premises with a total capacity of 120 seats. PTI