Many institutes aim to have a state-of-art infrastructure,
but can’t; either because of monetary limitations or lack of area to grow. The
Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai is facing the latter, as it is
unable to expand due to a space crunch.
Dr GD Yadav, Vice-Chancellor of ICT, said, “We have made use
of every inch of our 16 acre Mumbai campus, but we would like to have a
spacious campus to develop more. To get permissions from the Maharashtra State
authorities is challenging.” ICT has already sent a proposal to the Maharashtra
government to grant a 100 acre satellite campus in Navi Mumbai, but nothing constructive
has taken place as of yet on this matter. On the other hand, when the Odisha
government requested ICT to open a campus in their state, they immediately allotted
100 acres for the institute.
Odisha’s need of having a chemical technology institute like
ICT was realised after the Government of India approved setting up a ‘Petroleum,
Chemicals, and Petrochemical Investment Region’ near the Paradip port in
Odisha.
Dr Smita Lele, Registrar at ICT, Mumbai, told PaGaLGuY, “ICT
Odisha will be our satellite campus. The land has been allotted, funds have
been cleared, and construction process will begin by March 31, 2016.” The
Odisha government has promised to facilitate the expenditure.
Dr Lele continued, “We don’t have an incubation centre in
Mumbai but we will have one in Odisha. Though there will be regular full-time
faculty there, we will also teach through video-conferencing from our Mumbai
campus. It won’t be feasible for senior professors to travel to Odisha that
often.”
Dr Yadav added, “It is my dream to develop a modern campus.
My formula is: ‘Give me 100 acres, I will generate Rs. 1,000 crore’. The Odisha
government has given but I am hoping the Maharashtra government will also
consider our request soon.”