Goa government identifies land to set up new IIT

Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said the government has identified three separate plots to set up the proposed Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in the state.

Parsekar, who was under criticism for failing to come up with land, told IANS on Friday that a team of union ministry of human resource development would arrive in Goa later in May to finalise the location of the premier institution.

"We want the IIT to be set up formally as soon as possible. We have identified three areas spread over 14 lakh square metre for the purpose," Parsekar said.

Parsekar said that the HRD ministry could now choose between the three potential locations chosen at Dhargal, Khandola and Betul for setting up of the IIT.

"We have been told that an HRD team is expected to visit Goa this month to finalise the area," Parsekar said.

The new IIT in Goa is a part of the bouquet of IITs announced by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)government, with Jammu and Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala being the other places where the new premier institutes had been allotted.

In Goa, however the process of formally setting up the IIT got delayed due to the state government's inability to come up with adequate land for Institute over the last year, during which a temporary IIT campus was established in the Goa Engineering College in Farmagudi, 30 kms from Panaji.