IISc's second campus to come up in Karnataka

Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has confirmed that its second campus will come up in Kundapur village of Chitradurga district in Karnataka. The institute added it is still deliberating over the proposal received from the Andhra Pradesh government for a campus and has not yet taken a call on whether it will look at a third campus.

“We have completed the land survey in Chitradurga. We have taken around 1,500 acres area for the campus and are now in the process of deciding what activities will be conducted on this campus,” said Mohan Das, registrar of IISc.

The institute's clarification has come about owing to confusion regarding the location of IISc's second campus. According to media reports from Andhra Pradesh, K Rosaiah, the state's chief minister, received a letter from Kapil Sibal, Union HRD minister, saying that the union government had examined the AP government's proposal and mooted the idea of setting up a campus in the state to IISc.

The letter from the HRD ministry, according to media reports, said that a memorandum of understanding for the sale of land for the campus was under discussion. Reacting to the reports, Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurapa said the proposed second campus of IISc would come up in Chitradurga District of Karnataka as planned and not be shifted to any other state. Officials in the know said that if the proposal to set up campus in Andhra Pradesh fructifies, it would be IISc's third campus after Bangalore and Chitradurga.

IISc, is a research institution of higher learning, which was established in 1909.The invitation to IISc to set up a campus in Andhra Pradesh had come during the time of YS Rajasekhara Reddy, the late chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. Under the proposal, the Andhra Pradesh government had offered IISc, around 1,000 acres of land in Anantapur district bordering Bangalore district. Reddy was keen on making Andhra Pradesh an 'education hub' and had invited several other prestigious institutes of the country including the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) in Ahmedabad and Bangalore.

In March this year, IIM Ahmedabad told Business Standard that while it was keen to set up its second campus in the state, political turmoil had slowed down the progress. IIM Bangalore, on the other hand, declined the offer citing faculty constraints.