Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur is planning to set up a research and development and industry interface cell in Kolkata, according to Shishir K Dube, director, IIT-K.
"A formal proposal will be presented to the West Bengal government soon for around 100 acres in New Town, Rajarhat, for the R&D and industry interface centre," said Dube. He was inaugurating a new residential complex here, named after former President Shanker Dayal Sharma.
"An entrepreneur incubation centre is necessary as many companies are setting up offices in Rajarhat and have to come down to IIT-K every time for consultation," he added.
Ashutosh Dayal Sharma, chairman of infoUSA Inc, today inaugurated the first of the four blocks at the 1,600-seat Pt Madan Mohan Malaviya hall of residence spread over 7 acres.
IIT-K will have the largest residential complex among all IITs after the project is completed.
The 200-room block inaugurated today would exclusively serve the Vinod Gupta School of Management. The Vinod Gupta Charitable Fund donated Rs 4.5 crore (Rs 45 million) for the project, estimated at around Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million), said Kalyan Chakravarti, dean, VGSOM.
The existing residential hall used by the management students, called the Ashutosh Mookherjee hall of residence, will be refurbished to house a new executive programme at a cost of Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million), Chakravarti added.
VGSOM will concentrate on inter-disciplinary courses for executives and the augmented infrastructure will accommodate around 100 executives. They shall boost accommodation capacity at IIT-Kgp to around 4,000.
Meanwhile, IIT-K has signed an agreement with the Orissa government to provide technical expertise to the Orissa government under a project called the Orissa IIT-K technology mission.
IIT has already received seed money of Rs 4 crore (Rs 40 million) for the project. It would cover areas like development of a biotechnology park, utilisation of fly ash and solid waste management, setting of a technical education centre, a disaster management plan and a master plan for Bhubaneswar by 2030. IIT's department of architecture will be drafting the master plan.
IIT has also initiated discussion with West Bengal government for a similar project. It would like to play an advisory role to develop a biotechnology park in the state.
IIT-K would take up infrastructure development projects in the next two years worth around Rs 140 crore (Rs 1.4 billion), followed by a 250-room ladies hostel and a modern convention centre.
It will invest around Rs 50-60 crore (Rs 500-600 million) on R&D projects in 2005-06. It has also formed a society for incubation of innovative ideas, providing for an initial seed money of Rs 300,000. Selection of around 50 new faculty members would be completed shortly.
