Central varsity in Orissa to start functioning this year

The much awaited Central university in Orissa, proposed to be set up in Koraput, will start functioning from this academic year. The classes for the university are set to commence from August this year.

The Central university, the first of its kind in Orissa, will start operations on a temporary basis in the premises of the Council of Analytical Tribal Studies (COATS) and e-library facilities would be provided to the students, Surabhi Banerjee, vice-chancellor of the proposed Central University

The Central university in Orissa is one of the 14 such universities to be set up by the Central government during the 11 th plan (2007-2012) and around Rs 4,800-crore was sanctioned for this purpose.

While the Central government had sanctioned a Central university for Orissa, the state government had selected Koraput in south Orissa as the site for the institution.

The university will start functioning with courses in traditional subjects like English, Oriya, Sociology, Anthropology, Tribal Studies as well as Journalism and Mass Communication.

In the subsequent years, several other technical, professional and job-oriented courses would be introduced in the university.

The Common Entrance Test (CET) for admission to the university would be held in several centres across the country for selection of students, said Banerjee.

The full-fledged campus of the university is expected to come up within a span of five years. A four- member team under the chairmanship of the vice chancellor has visited several locations in and around Koraput to identify a suitable place for construction of the university building

The team was visited the areas for the last two days. Besides Banarjee, the other members in the team are BK Mishra, registrar, Laxmikant Pati, director (finance) and Ganesh Chandra Roul, the coordinator of the university.

As per the preliminary survey, the team has identified 566 acres of land adjoining the Koraput railway station for the university campus.

“Once the infrastructure for the university is ready, the university campus would become the major attraction not only for the students, but also for the tourists for its unique green campus”, Banerjee claimed.