The HRD ministry has set up a committee, headed by its Additional Secretary Ashok Thakur, which will visit the sites offered by Rajasthan, Orissa, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh for inspection.
"The committee will visit and ascertain the suitability of the sites. If they do not give convincing reports, states will be asked to offer new sites," a senior HRD ministry official told PTI.
The other members of the committee are A K Dey, former director of IIT-Bombay, K Narayan Rao, member secretary of AICTE, and the directors of the IITs who have been given the responsibility of mentoring these institutes.
The government has started six new IITs in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Orissa, Punjab and Gujarat from this year. Academic activities in these institutes are either run by certain mentor IITs or in temporary campuses.
Two other IITs, one in Madhya Pradesh and one in Himachal Pradesh, will commence session from 2009.
There is a proposal to upgrade Institute of Technology, BHU, into an IIT.
The government had prepared a set of parameters for choosing the site for an IIT. As per the criteria, the state should provide a location of 500 to 600 acres of land with air, rail and road connectivity. The IIT Rajasthan is now operating at its mentor IIT in Kanpur. It is expected to start functioning at its new campus from the coming session.
Similarly, IIT Orissa is run at its mentor institute, IIT Kharagpur. The IIT Gujarat has started functioning from a temporary campus.
Prime Minister's science advisor C N R Rao had recently expressed unhappiness about the government's initiative to start eight new IITs without campuses. He had stressed on evolving some 'patchwork' to make them viable.
The new institutes have given admission to students. However, they do not have campuses and directors. The directors and chairmen of board of governors of the mentor IITs are acting as the directors and chairmen of the new IITs.
The government has allocated Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) in the 11th Plan for these institutes.
