Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government today appealed to the Centre to announce the establishment of the proposed National Institute of New Energy and Innovations (NINIE) in Bhubaneswar.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chief minister Naveen Patnaik urged the former to allocate necessary funds at the earliest for construction work of the national institute to begin.
“I request you for an early announcement of setting up of the National Institute of New Energy and Innovations at Bhubaneswar and allocate funds for the purpose to kick-start the construction activities at the earliest,” Patnaik said in the letter.
Appreciating the Centre’s initiative in this regard, the chief minister said the State government is fully committed to provide all necessary assistance including allocation of land free of cost for the establishment of this institute of national repute.
“My government has taken expeditious steps to allot around 80 acres of land near IIT, Bhubaneswar for NINEI,” the letter read.
Notably, the institute will focus on research work on the development and promotion of new technologies in renewable sources of energy.
The announcement about the setting up of NINEI was made by joint secretary of Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, JB Mohapatra while speaking at the Odisha Energy Conclave-2015 organized by the Indian Chamber of Commerce in September last year.
"The objective of the institute is to carry out and facilitate research, design, development, testing, standardization and technology demonstration eventually leading to commercialization of R&D output with a focus on new and renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and biogas," he had said.
The Centre has asked that the plot be located near a prominent technical institute so that they can exchange ideas and research developments, Mohapatra had added.
The institute will be set up on the lines of the National Institute of Solar Energy, National Institute of Wind Energy and Sardar Swaran Singh National Institute of Biomass Energy, all under the ministry of new and renewable energy.