Sixty acres of land earmarked, not a brick laid for IIM Amritsar

Two years after the Centre announced setting up of an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) at Amritsar, not a brick has been laid to construct the institute’s own building. The classes continue to run from premises from the Punjab Institute of Technology building on the Government Polytechnic College premises in the city.

Two years after the Centre announced setting up of an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) at Amritsar, not a brick has been laid to construct the institute’s own building. The classes continue to run from premises from the Punjab Institute of Technology building on the Government Polytechnic College premises in the city.

The classes continue to run from premises from the Punjab Institute of Technology building on the Government Polytechnic College premises in the city. (Photo courtesy: Wikipedia)

The Punjab government had finalised 60 acres for the IIM near Manawala last year, but till now construction work has not started. The IIM had commenced classes in August last year.

The IIM already has 60 students and its mentor institute is IIM, Kozhikode. The Punjab government is yet to give possession of the land to the institute, resulting in delay in construction work. As per the arrangement, the Punjab government was to provide the land and Centre was to take care of the construction cost estimated at about `800 crore.

Amritsar Development Authority (ADA) chairman Sandeep Rishi said, “We have purchased 60 acres land for the project. The land is in the name of Punjab government and will transfer to the IIM Society once the order comes.” This land is near Manawala, about 12km from Amritsar city and has good accessibility for the staff and students, he added.

Sources said the representatives of the IIM have already met the Amritsar deputy commissioner for transfer of land, but the officials are awaiting orders from the government. The tendering process can only start once the land is transferred to IIM Society.

Before finalising the land for the IIM, the district administration had given a couple of options at Awaan near Ajnala and Sheron Baga near Baba Bakala, but the Central teams rejected them as they were far from the city.