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.”