PM promises world-class educational institute in Vizag

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised a world-class educational institute for the Visakhapatnam region.

Addressing women self-help groups at Visakhapatnam today, he said the UPA government was planning to set up a top-class educational institute in all blocks of the country, and one of them would come up in this region.

"The state government has also asked for an IIM at Visakhapatnam. I will discuss this with the HRD minister and take a positive decision in this regard soon."

He said the Centre was seriously exploring the possibilities of allotting captive iron ore mines to the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant.

"The UPA government has been taking several steps to revive the sick public sector undertaking units, and as part of this, the government decided to merge the loss-making Vizag-based BHPV with BHEL. This process is in the advance stage and we would complete the merger formalities at the earliest," he added.

The night landing facility would be provided at the Vizag airport soon and depending on the air traffic, the airport will be further upgraded, he said. The Central government was giving huge amounts to Vizag under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Development schemes and the city was expected to attract more investment in the petrochemical sector in future.