30 adarsh vidyalayas coming up in Odisha districts

Bhubaneswar: As part of its efforts to set up model schools in educationally backward regions of the state, the Odisha govenrment today entered into an agreement with Tata Steel for setting up of 30 Adarsh Vidyalaya in seven districts.

"The steel major will spend Rs 4 crore each for the construction of model schools besides spending Rs 33 lakh each for other logistics required for the instutitions," school and mass education minister Debi Prasad Mishra said.

As per the MoU signed between the two, Tata Steel will set up model schools in Jajpur (9), Cuttack (8), Keonjhar and Sundergarh (3 each), Ganjam (5) and one each in Dhenkanal and Nayagarh district.

Facilitating the process, the state government would be identifying minimum 5 acres of suitable and encumbrance free land in the respective blocks and hand over the same to Tata Steel for construction of the schools.

The steel major would start construction work of the school buildings as per the drawings provided by the state government.

"Tata Steel would also provide necessary furniture and accompanying infrastructure for the schools. Upon completion of the construction work, the state government would take charge for the operations and maintenance of the schools including the infrastructure," a release issued by Tata Steel said.

Sunil Bhaskaran of Tata Steel said that the company is committed for inclusive growth of the society and will take many more such initiatives in the state in the coming days.

Meanwhile, Mishra said the state government has made 100 such model schools operational in 100 different blocks in the 2016-17 academic year while construction work was on progress for 62 other Adarsh Vidyalaya.

The minister said the state owner Odisha Mining Corporation would also take the responsibility of building 25 such model schools in educationally backward districts. The state govenrment has earmarked spending of Rs 2981 crore for model schools in a period of five years, the minister said.