Rs 350 cr approved for CUHP campus

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, November 14

The Union Ministry of Human Resources Development has sanctioned Rs 350 crore for the campus of Central University Himachal Pradesh (CUHP). This will pave the way for construction of the campus that has been delayed for the past more than 10 years.

VC of CUHP Kuldeep Agnihotri admitted that the Centre had sanctioned Rs 350 crore for the construction of the campus.

He said the amount had been sanctioned for construction of phase I of the university.

“We have written to the Union ministry for sanctioning more funds for phase-I as the construction in hill areas was costlier than in plains. Moreover, the entire Kangra valley falls in zone-V in terms of seismic activity. So, all buildings that would be constructed in the CUHP would be earthquake-resistant. I expect that the work on the CUHP would start in two months”, the VC said.

The CUHP campus would come up at two places, Dehra and Jadrangal, in Dharamsala.

Sources here told The Tribune that though the entire 80-acre land at Dehra has already been transferred in the name of the CUHP and construction on it can be started at any time, the land allotted for the project at Jadrangal was still waiting permission from the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests.

The state government had proposed about 500-acre land in Jadrangal for the campus. Out of it, about 50-acre land was non forest and had been transferred in the name of university. However, the remaining about 450 acre was forest land. The case for transfer of forest land to the CUHP was sent to the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests.

However, the ministry had raised certain objections to the proposal. The officials have removed the objections and re-sent the case to the ministry. The approval of the union ministry in the case was still awaited.

The CUHP was sanctioned by the Union Government to Himachal in 2009. The then BJP government led by the Prem Kumar Dhumal had proposed to set up twin campuses of the CUHP at Dharamsala and Dehra. However, the forest clearance for the project did not come in time and the government changed.