Construction work starts at IIM Amritsar, campus to ready within 3 years
Union human resource development minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ presided over the groundbreaking ceremony of ₹600-crore permanent campus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) on Monday. Construction has, thus, started at the institute located on national highway-1 at Manawala village, about 25km from Amritsar city and the project is expected to be completed in 2-3 years.
Union human resource development minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ presided over the groundbreaking ceremony of ₹600-crore permanent campus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) on Monday. Construction has, thus, started at the institute located on national highway-1 at Manawala village, about 25km from Amritsar city and the project is expected to be completed in 2-3 years. This is the second such ceremony to be held in two years at the first IIM of the state, and the 15th in the country.
The institute is functioning from a building at the Government Polytechnic College, near the main campus of GNDU. Students are irked at being taught from a temporary campus.
In 2015, the then Union finance minister, Arun Jaitley, had announced the IIM in his budget speech; he had laid the foundation stone in 2016. On Monday, Punjab chief minister was scheduled to be present as the guest of honour, but he did not turn up. Cabinet minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa attended the ceremony on his behalf.
“I am happy to announce that ₹350 crore have been allocated for building the campus in the first phase; ₹250 crore will be given in the second phase,” Pokhriyal said.
“The construction of the IIM campus would have started much earlier, but one acre was embroiled in a dispute. As a result, we could not prepare the Detailed Project Report (DPR). As soon as we got clearance for the stretch, we took no time from our end,” he said, adding that soon the ministry would son release a visual of the project.
Speaking on the behalf of the Punjab government, which has given 60 acre for the campus, Bajwa thanked the union government for gifting Punjab’s first IIM to Amritsar.
“I assure the Centre of full cooperation from the state. We also plan to open a branch of this institute in Mohali,” Bajwa added.
IIM Amritsar director professor Nagarajan Ramamoorthy thanked all digniataries for support. The institute’s Board of Governors (BoG) chairman Sanjay Gupta and IIM Kozhikode director, professor Debashish Chatterjee, were also among those present on the occasion.
₹490-crore inter-faith study
centre to come up at GNDU
Pokhriyal added that the Centre was celebrating the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak on a large scale. He added, “An inter-faith study centre will be set up at Guru Nanak Dev University at a cost of ₹493 crore to mark the 550th birth anniversary. We will provide facilities for studying Guru Nanak’s philosophy. A DPR of this centre is being prepared.”
He added that the Centre was also planning to get a Guru Nanak chair functional at universities in the UK and Canada.
Caption
Union human resource development minister Ramesh Pokhriyal (centre) with IIM Amritsar officials during the groundbreaking ceremony of the institute at Manawala near Amritsar on Monday. Sameer Sehgal/HT
BOX PLEASE
Headline
A primer on the state’s first IIM
Introduction
Finally, things have started moving for the country’s 15th IIM at Amritsar. The minister has promised that the DPR of the project will be unveiled soon.
Area
60 acre
Cost
₹600cr
Expected time for completion
2-3 years
Facilities to be available on campus
600-seater auditorium; hostel with capacity to house 575 students; 90 faculty houses, primary health centre; a bank, state-of-the-art facilities in its library; health centre; incubation centre; cafeteria, club and shops, sports complex and a special hostel for married students, Management Development Centre, guest house for visitors, and a praying and meditation centre for students