New teaching, learning facilities at Nauni University

Solan, March 16

Several teaching and learning amenities established at a cost of around Rs 3 crore under the World Bank-funded Institutional Development Plan of the Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR) were made functional at Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni.

Dr RC Aggarwal, Deputy Director General (Education) ICAR, and Director, National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP), inaugurated these projects in the presence of Vice-Chancellor Dr Parvinder Kaushal. He stressed on building world-class agri institutes. He also interacted with the student beneficiaries of the project. He appreciated the sustainable model of high-density apple and wild pomegranate plantations established at Nauni and Kandaghat.

Among the facilities inaugurated comprise an agri-incubation centre on processing and value addition of medicinal and aromatic plants established at a cost of Rs 60 lakh. This will impart training on skill and entrepreneurship development to the students and help develop value-added herbal products. New startups will be able to utilise the resources and infrastructure available here.

A language lab, set up at a cost of Rs 50 lakh, for French, German, Spanish, Hindi, English and Sanskrit languages has also been made operational. Besides, four smart classrooms and two virtual classrooms costing Rs 48 lakh and Rs 38 lakh, respectively, were also dedicated to the students.

Dr Aggarwal also inaugurated the IDP Secretariat which houses the procurement cell, social equity cell, virtual counselling cell, Planning and monitoring cell and also has seating space for the IDP team. The Secretariat has been established at a cost of around Rs 1 crore by refurbishing a section of the College of Forestry.

He lauded the university and the IDP for swift and quality implementation of various activities under this project. A remote log software of CERA and GIS certificate courses software was also released on the occasion.