PANAJI
The Goa Government is awaiting a nod from the Union Ministry of Education for the 10 lakh sq meters land at Rivona-Sanguem as the permanent site for IIT campus, the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Monday.
Sawant said that the IIT selection committee has already inspected the site proposed at Rivona by the State government and that their nod is awaited. “Inspection is done and now the proposal is before the highest level at the Central Ministry. Once we get their approval, we can say that the site is finalized,” he said.
The IIT site selection committee inspected the site, spread across an area of 10.5 lakh sq mts at Rivona in November.
Earlier, the site selected in Sanguem was rejected by the Union ministry as being unsuitable for the project. There were also series of protests from farmers who said that they had been cultivating in the area.
The Rivona gram sabha recently passed a resolution welcoming setting up IIT campus in their village.
IIT Goa became operational in the state in 2016 and has been functioning from a temporary campus at the Goa Engineering College, at Farmagudi.
Several land parcels identified for the permanent campus project over the years have either been rejected by the Union education ministry’s site selection committee or faced protests from locals due to different reasons.
The various locations identified for the projects so far are Dhargalim, Loliem, Sattari and Sanguem.
Meanwhile, the State government has signed MoU with IIT Goa, BITS Goa and GIM for faculty enrichment internship program-FEIM on Monday.
Under the initiative, the premier institutes of national and international repute will help render training to faculty in government and private higher education institutes.
