SAARC varsity campus to miss 2018 deadline

The permanent campus of South Asian University (SAU), an international varsity sponsored by the SAARC countries, will now be ready by 2020 instead of 2018 due to the delay in getting necessary approvals.
Since its inauguration in 2010, SAU has been functioning at a temporary campus at Akbar Bhawan here for which the varsity pays a rent of Rs 1.5 crore per month.
100 acres of land has been allocated by the Indian government for a permanent campus in Maidan Garhi near IGNOU, while the operational expenditure will be borne by the governments of partner SAARC member states.
The new campus, for which the ground breaking ceremony took place in 2015, was expected to be operational by 2018.

"The construction has started and work is on for five buildings. By end of this year, the construction of another seven buildings will begin for which tenders have already been allotted," Kavita Sharma, President, SAU, told PTI.
"Since the approval of Master Layout plan from the South MCD and the completion of formalities with the DDA took longer time than expected, the work was delayed but now we are hoping that the varsity will shift to the new campus within three years," she said.

The eight member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

SAU was conceived as an institution with world-class facilities that would enable the best and brightest of students from the SAARC members to appreciate each other's national perspectives and, at the same time, promote a regional consciousness.
SAU offers Master's and M.Phil/Ph.D programmes in Applied Mathematics, Biotechnology, Computer Science, Development Economics, International Relations, Law and Sociology. The degrees are recognised by all SAARC nations according to an inter-governmental agreement signed by the foreign ministers of the eight countries.
The university attracts students predominantly from the SAARC nations, although students from other countries can also take admission.