Tech varsity to relocate soon

Perneet Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 28

Set up during the SAD-BJP regime, Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University (MRSPTU), Bathinda, will soon shift to a campus on the outskirts of the city.

The vibrant and sprawling campus spread over 146 acres with royal architecture is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 300 crore in three phases.

In June 2014, the previous government had decided to establish a second technical university in Bathinda on the campus of the Giani Zail Singh Engineering College.

The new campus will have residential facilities for 3,000 students. In the first phase, the campus facilities will come up on 30 acres, of which 60 per cent area will have green belt.

The work on the first phase began on October 3, 2016, at an estimated cost of Rs 115 crore.

About 90 per cent of the work has been completed. The first phase is witnessing construction of the administrative block that will comprise secretariats of Vice-Chancellor and Registrar, offices of accounts branch, examination branch, Dean of R&D, Dean of Academic Affairs, Dean of Students’ Welfare, Director of Distance Education and Director of Sports and Youth Welfare.

Apart from it, Vice-Chancellor’s residence, central library, six academic departments, lecture theatre complex and IT-enabled centre have also been constructed in the first phase. The campus will also boast of rainwater harvesting units.

As per the MRSTU Bathinda Act passed in Punjab Assembly in 2015, colleges in Bathinda, Barnala, Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib, Fazilka, Ferozepur, Mansa, Moga, Muktsar, Patiala and Sangrur districts were transferred to the university.

As a result, IK Gujral Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar, was left with 170 colleges, including 66 engineering, 20 pharmacy, 78 management, four architecture and two hotel management colleges, while the Bathinda university got 103 colleges, including 41 engineering, 13 pharmacy, 46 management and three architecture.

On assumption of power, the Congress government in March 2017 decided to give a chance to colleges to opt for either of the two universities.

Subsequently, a number of colleges had opted for the IK Gujral PTU. Prominent among them were Malout Institute of Management and Information Technology, Malout; Baba Hira Singh Bhattal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Lehra Gaga, Sangrur; and Shaheed Bhagat Singh College of Engineering and Technology, Ferozepur.

The MRSPTU authorities felt that colleges might have moved away because they didn’t like the discipline being imposed by the university.