IIIT, Dharwad, may be expected next year

The Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), sanctioned for Dharwad, should start functioning from a temporary campus from the academic year 2015-16, if everything goes according to plan.

The revenue department has been asked to allot land free of cost. The Union government’s site selection committee has identified 61.06 acres of land near Tadasinakoppa village off Dharwad for establishment of IIIT. The state government has already given its commitment towards providing 50 to 100 acres of contiguous land free of cost and its share of capital expenditure of Rs 45 crore.

Karnataka IT/BT minister S R Patil said here on Wednesday that the prestigious institution could start functioning from the coming academic year at the Hubli IT park as on a temporary basis till the new building comes up.

The process of choosing a suitable person as director of IIIT-Dharwad has also been initiated, Patil said.

The IIIT-Dharwad, is part of the Union government’s proposal to set up 20 new IIITs in different parts of the country and the partners in project would be the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India (MHRD), state governments and industry.

The capital cost of each IIIT is tentatively estimated at Rs 128 crore to be contributed in the ratio of 50:35:15 by the central government (Rs 64 crore), state government (Rs 45 crore) and the industry (Rs 19 crore) respectively.