Bihar's dream of an Indian Institute of Management in Patna is likely to become a reality in 2008, official sources said on Thursday.

In the beginning, the institute will function from a temporary campus situated in the heart of Patna.

A senior official of the state government told rediff.com that IIM, Patna will be headed by rural marketing guru and Dean of Information Technology and Management Kozikhde V Mukunda Das.

"V Mukunda Das is all set to become the first director of IIM, Patna," sources said.

IIM, Patna, in the beginning, will start with only 60 students, which will later be increased with the expansion of its own campus.

Like other IIMs, the proposed institute in Patna will offer MBA and other management degrees. "Admissions to IIM, Patna will be made through the scores of the Common Admission Test conducted by IIM every November," sources said.

In the last year, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to Union railway minister Lalu Prasad have been striving to make Bihar an educationally prosperous state by of setting up two elite institutes for higher learning, the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Management.