Rourkela: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday laid the foundation stones for six projects in National Institute of Technology (NIT) at Rourkela in Odisha’s Sundargarh district.
The projects include three girls’ hostels each of 500-bed capacity for more intake of girl students. The NIT has allocated 15 acre for both the boys’ and girls’ hostels.
Of the three girls’ hostels, one is funded by Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) with Rs 42.69 crore under its CSR activity and one by the Ministry of Education under the EWS scheme fund. The rest of the project, costing Rs 165.81 crore will be completed with the support of HEFA (Higher Education Financing Agency).
The institute plans to use half of the area for a boys’ hostel with a capacity of 1000 beds and a three-fourth of the area for three girls’ hostels. The remaining area is being kept aside for future hostel construction.
Speaking on the occasion, Pradhan said, “NIT, Rourkela with 8,000 students is the glory of our country and identity card of our state. More than 3,000 students of Odisha are studying here. More than 2500 students will benefit from the projects unveiled today.”
Prof K Umamaheshwar Rao, Director, NIT Rourkela said, “Since its inception on August 15, 1961 NIT-Rourkela has been working relentlessly to grow as one of the most popular institutions in the country. One of the primary objectives of NEP-2020 is to eliminate any disparity in access to education for children of all communities or other socio-economically disadvantaged group. Towards this, NIT Rourkela through Kendriya Vidyalaya aims at providing high-quality educational to all.”
Pradhan also inaugurated a Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) on the day, taking the total in Rourkela KVs to three.
