Berhampur: The Odisha government has decided to run the temporary campus of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) inside the premises of Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in Berhampur.
Informing the media on Saturday, ITI principal Dr Rajat Panigrahi said he has received a letter from the Additional Secretary, Skill Development & Technical Education, PK Das in this regard.
He said the second floor of the ITI building having 14,000 sq ft area with 16 workshops and 16 classrooms, construction of which is underway, has been earmarked for the IISER students.
Apart from this, the Polytechnic wing of the ITI will be the ladies’ hostel while the newly built Skill Development Centre building will be the gents’ hostel of the IISER.
“We will start the process of handing over the new building to the state government within a month,” Panigrahi said, adding that regular classes would begin from the current academic session after admission to the five-year integrated course.
Notably, following the announcement of the Centre to set up IISER in Odisha, the state government had decided to set up the premiere institute in Berhampur.
A five-member Central team had visited Berhampur on November 17 last year to select one of the two sites identified by the state government at Palur Hill and Lahudi villages under Rangeilunda block for the permanent campus of IISER.
The team had also visited Berhampur ITI, Gandhi Institute of Industrial Technology (GIIT) , Berhampur School of Engineering & Technology (BSET) for the temporary campus of IISER.
The team, after finalising the site at Lahudi village for the permanent campus, had again visited Berhampur on January 8 and again on February 16 and selected Berhampur ITI as the temporary campus of IISER.
Following the recommendation of the Central team, principal secretary, state Industries department, LN Gupta, chief engineer Umesh Mishra and director, IISER, Bhopal had submitted a report to the state government which gave a formal approval to the setting up of the temporary campus of the institute.