Panel okays Manawala site for IIM Amritsar

Perneet Singh

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 18

A Central team today recommended a 60-acre site near Manawala on Amritsar-Jalandhar GT Road zeroed in by the district administration for setting up the prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM) here.

The team comprising Shailender Kumar from Union HRD Ministry, IIM Kozhikode Director Kulbhushan Balooni, C Raul, Principal Secretary, Higher Education, Punjab government, and PL Gupta, who was representing Chief Engineer, CPWD, landed at the Amritsar airport this morning. Subsequently, they were accompanied by the district administration officials to the proposed site which is located at Nijjarpura and Rakhcheta village near Manawala.

Sources said the team evinced keen interest in exploring various aspects of the proposed site and found it suitable for the IIM. The site is located at just 4.5 km from the city limits, 7 km from the ISBT and 8.5 km from the railway station, therefore making it easily approachable. Besides, there are already a few educational institutions in its vicinity.

“The site selection committee recommends this site comprising 60 acres of land as being appropriate for setting up the proposed IIM,” said the team in its recommendation.

Located on the Amritsar-Jalandhar GT Road, this site, owned by a Delhi-based private party, is in proximity to the main township, the factor that was most sought after by the Centre’s site-selection committee. Besides, the team visited the temporary campus of the IIM located on the premises of the Punjab Institute of Technology near the Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU). They also took stock of a couple of sites for the hostel facility. Among these were an Improvement Trust property at Ghee Mandi and another belonging to the Chief Khalsa Diwan on Ram Tirath Road.

The administration is now optimistic that the IIM’s new academic session will start at its temporary campus near the GNDU in the coming month. Earlier, there were reports that the temporary campus may not get functional this year if the state government failed to get the site finalised for setting up its permanent campus. It had also fuelled apprehensions that the IIM may be shifted out of Amritsar. Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi had even written to the CM, seeking his intervention to ensure that the IIM remains in Amritsar.

With today’s development, the maiden academic session (2015-16) of Amritsar IIM with 65 students of postgraduate degree in business management (PGDBM) course is likely to start from July 15 from the temporary campus located near GNDU.

Earlier, two sites — 192 acres at Awan village in Ajnala block and 150 acres at Sheron Bagha village near Baba Bakala — had failed to impress the central site-selection committee which had visited these places in April. Awan village’s rural and remote location away from township and Sheron Bagha’s placement on the bank of the Beas were the major drawbacks.

Horticulture institute site

Meanwhile, a six-member team, comprising Indian Council of Agriculture Research Assistant Directors AK Vashisht and P Janakiram, and Punjab Horticulture Director Gurkanwal Singh, also visited Amritsar to select the site for the PG Institute of Horticulture to be set up here.

They visited six sites - fish farm at Rajasansi, state government farm at Attari, seed farm at Dayal Bharang village near Ajnala, Central Jail, Amritsar (which is being shifted), a site near upcoming Heritage Village, and another site at Buddha Theh near Beas.

The team will shortlist these sites and submit a report to the Centre. There are reports that the study centre of the institute may be in the city while experiment centres will come up in the rural belt.