The Centre has released and allocated Rs 165.14 crore in the last three years for completing the construction of the permanent campus of NIT Meghalaya in Sohra.
“Construction of the permanent campus of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Meghalaya will be completed soon,” informed union human resources minister Ramesh Pokhriyal at Lok Sabha on Monday.
He was answering to a question raised by Shillong Lok Sabha MP Vincent H Pala.
NIT Meghalaya was established in 2010 and started functioning from its temporary campus at Laitumkhrah in 2012.
NIT’s permanent campus is currently under construction at Sohra, 53 km from Shillong.
The Centre had earlier earmarked a total of Rs 800 crore for the NIT project in Meghalaya.
NIT Meghalaya is one among the 31 NITs in the country established under the NIT Act 2007 (Amended 2012) as institutes of national importance, which are funded by the union ministry of human resource development.
The Union minister said that funds allocated during the last three financial years were Rs 70 crore in 2017-18, Rs 48.78 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 46.36 crore in 2019-20 (total Rs 165.14 crore in three years).
To Pala’s query, “if the Centre has any specific plans to improve the condition of NIT Meghalaya”, Pokhriyal said, “Meghalaya government has provided land at Sohra for the establishing NIT’s permanent campus.”
“Construction of the institute is going on and in various stages, the construction work has even been completed,” Pokhriyal added.
“The ministry of human resources development has from time to time releases grants to NIT Meghalaya to meet their expenditure,” Pokhriyal said.
“The ministry has also sanctioned the requisite number of faculty and non-faculty positions to the institute for its smooth functioning,” Pokhriyal said.
The institute is currently functioning from its present temporary campus at Laitumkhrah, Shillong, and the branches of engineering comprised of undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes.
Currently, 930 students are enrolled in various branches of study in NIT Meghalaya.
Pala also sought to know the amount released and allocated during the last three years for NITs located in other states of the Northeast.
During the last three years, funds released and allocated for NIT Agartala was Rs 109.16 crore in 2017-18, Rs 88.14 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 115 crore in 2019-20.
For NIT Silchar, the funds released and allocated was Rs 120.15 crore in 2017-18, Rs 88.042 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 115 crore in 2019-20.
For NIT Arunachal Pradesh it was released and allocated Rs 30 crore in 2017-18, Rs 34.33 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 36.72 crore in 2019-20.
Similarly, the NIT Manipur got Rs 44 crore in 2017-18, Rs 38.17 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 32.97 crore in 2019-20.
For Mizoram the amount released was Rs 73.16 crore in 2017-18, Rs 20.50 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 36.56 crore in 2019-20.
The NIT Nagaland got Rs 62 crore in 2017-18, Rs 29.43 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 27.71 crore in 2019-20.
The NIT Sikkim also got Rs 19 crore in 2017-18, Rs 38.17 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 71.60 crore in 2019-19.