Team Herald
PANJIM: After a long wait, the State will soon have a permanent campus of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) with the South Goa Collectorate handing over the land at Cuncolim to the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) on Tuesday.
Sources told Herald that DTE Director Vivek Kamat was handed over the 4.57 lakh sq mtrs of land that will be further handed over to the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) for its development.
“DTE will move the Goa government for approval to give the acquired land to MHRD for developing the land and creating infrastructure,” an official said. DTE has already paid around Rs 37 crore as compensation to the district collectorate through EDC. DTE had appointed an officer in charge – Assistant Director Deepak Gaitonde – to follow up on the acquisition.
NIT is temporarily functioning from the premises of Goa Engineering College since 2010 amidst infrastructural and other logistical problems. In October 2013, MHRD had given the State a month to allot land for the permanent NIT campus failing which it will be forced to locate the land elsewhere in the country.
In his 2016-17 Budget speech, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar had confirmed acquiring and taking possession of land. “It would be handed over to NIT (MHRD) so that the requisite infrastructure can be put up within the shortest possible time,” he had said.
With land possession for the NIT completed, the government is expediting the process of identifying and acquiring land for setting up an IIT campus in Goa. A provision of Rs 1000 lakh towards land acquisition costs has been made. The State has identified a spacious land at Canacona for the institute.
