After much dilly-dallying the state government finally agreed to shift the ite for the IIT Patna. It would now come up in Amhara on Bihta-Aurangabad Road instead of Sikandrapur on Bihta-Bhojpur road. This has been done in view of the objection by the IIT Roorkee team that the earlier site will witness repeated water-logging. However, the team has now approved the new site for the IIT. Interestingly, when the IIT team earlier opposed the site the state government refused to accept it. Though it is the Centre, which opens the IIT, it is the state government which identifies the land for it. Meanwhile, the process to launch the new IIT was set in motion with the appointment of dean of IIT Guwahati, Samarendra Dandetad, as the dean of IIT Patna (Camp office). The IIT Guwahati, which itself started from a make-shift venue in 1994 is the mentor institute for IIT, Patna.
The counselling for the IIT Patna has started along with other IITs. Students get admitted to different branches as per their ranking. The first academic session would start from the first week of August. In the beginning the IIT Patna will have only three branches: Electrical, Mechanical and Computer Science. Last month the director of IIT Guwahati, Gautam Barua, also visited Patna to oversee the preparation works.
The IIT Patna will run for the first three years from Patliputra Polytechnic. It will be only after the completion of the building near Bihta that it will finally shift to the new campus.
Source: Bihar Times, June-20-2008
