Khallikote University second campus to come up near Kanishi

The second campus will set up for the newly established Khallikote cluster university near Kanishi on the outskirts of Berhampur.

Around 20 acres of land have been identified near Palur hill for the purpose. "It would be set up from funds sanctioned under Rastriya Uchachatara Shikshya Abhiyan (RUSA)," Pradeep Panigrahi, the state's higher education minister, said here on Tuesday.

The government has approved Rs 55 crore for the next three years to Khallikote cluster university under RUSA, of which Rs 18 crore is for this year. The sanctioned amount for this year, however, is yet to be released, sources said.

Minister said the Khallikote college campus would have WiFi facilities shortly. The government has sanctioned Rs 20 lakh to the college for the purpose. All other modern facilities such as smart classrooms and upgrade of laboratories would be made soon, minister said.

He was addressing a programme held at the college for distribution of free laptops to meritorious students, who passed Plus II in 2014, under Biju Youth Empowerment Scheme in 2013. He distributed around 150 laptops to the students.

The second campus for the 137-year-old college was necessary as the present infrastructure was not sufficient to conduct classes and other activities. The college has 18 different undergraduate and postgraduate departments with around 4,500 student strength. Moreover, around 20 acres of extra land is necessary as the autonomous college was upgraded to university. The government had notified upgrade of Khallikote autonomous college to cluster university on May 30.

The detailed project report (DPR) is being prepared for the second campus of the new university, said its officer-on-special-duty (OSD) Manmath Padhy. The estimate for the second campus would be known only after the DPR is drawn up, he said.

Besides the administrative building, plans are afoot for construction of post-graduate departments and hostels for boys and girls on the second campus, Padhy said. The new university and its constituent colleges are offering post-graduate courses in 18 subjects. "We also plan to introduce at least three more PG courses from the next year," he added.

Besides Khallikote, the cluster university consists Binayak Acharya College, Sashibhusan Rath (SBR) Government Women's College, Berhmpur, Science College, Chhatrapur and Goplapur College, Gopalpur. All of these colleges have common admission and decided to introduce common syllabus and choice-based credit system from this year, Padhy said.

-TNN | Sep 16, 2015

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