Orissa to set up IIIT near Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, Dec 24 (UNI) The Orissa Government has decided to set up an International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) at the outskirt of this capital city to meet the ever increasing human resources.

Minister for Information Technology S N Patro today told reporters the institute would be at par with the one already existed in Bangalore and in Hyderabad.

The institute would impart higher education and undertake advanced research in the field of information and communication technology and undertake orientation programme for lecturers of private engineering colleges.

The institute, Mr Patro said, had already got approval of the AICTE and planned to enroll students from January after getting the affiliation of Biju Patnaik University of Technology.

In January, about 25 students would be admitted for two-year M Tech course in Computer Science and Engineering and 25 more students would be enrolled in June for M Tech in Information Technology.

The government also planned to open B Tech courses in the institute after two years, the Minister said.

Mr Patro said the state government had donated 23.24 acres of land at Gothapatna for the campus and committed a financial grant of Rs 10 crore for the institution.

The government, he said, had also agreed to provide a recurring annual grant of Rs two crore for first three years. The standing committee of the assembly had also recommended for a provision of Rs 40 crore for infrastrcture development of the institute.

The construction work of the institute would start in March next, he said.

Infosys Technologies Limited had paid Rs one crore for instituting a Chair at the institute.

Mr Patro said software majors like Tata Consultancy Services, WIPRO, Mindtree had also shown keen interest in similar assistance, he said.

Mr Patro said some eminent professors like-Somanath Tripathy of North East Hill University, Rakesh Balabant Rai of NIT, Durgapur, Anjali Mohapatra of ITR, Bhubaneswar, have already joined the institute.

The Minister said eight professors from various universities of USA have also agreed to join the institue as visiting professors.

The professors are -Jay Dev Mishra, Gautam Das, Rabi Mohapatra (University of Texas), Chitta Baral (Arizona state university), L N Bhuyan, Prashant Mohapatra (University of California), Sarju P Mohanty (North Texas University) and Durga Mishra (New Jersey Institute of Technology).

UNI