CHENNAI: The State Government has allotted about 6.5 acres at Taramani near TIDEL Park to the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras for setting up a research park, M.S. Ananth, Director of IIT-Madras, said on Thursday.

To be registered as a non-profit company (under Section 25 of the Companies Act), the park will provide facilities for research and development (R&D) for industry.

The requirement on the part of the industry is that it should interact with the faculty members and IIT students.

In the first phase, 400,000 sq.ft. will be created for information technology, telecommunication and biotechnology companies. The first phase will be completed by December 2006.

"We hope that the manufacturing sector will be part of this effort," Prof. Ananth told mediapersons.

Proposal cleared

The Human Resource Development Ministry has cleared the proposal. The alumni of the IIT will contribute about Rs. 10 crores.

There will be no contribution directly from the Ministry and the IIT. The companies that utilise the facilities in the park will also support the venture.

An underpass or an overbridge will link the IIT to the park.

Prof. Ananth was interacting with the media at the briefing made by Director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research Baldev Raj on a five-day national meet in metallurgy, beginning on November 12.

International meet

The Indian Institute of Metals (IIM) and the IIT will organise a two-day international symposium on frontiers in design of materials on November 12 and 13, the National Metallurgists' Day (NMD) celebration and the annual technical meeting on November 14-16.

R. Chidambaram, principal scientific adviser to the Government of India, will inaugurate the symposium on Saturday and Mano Ranjan, Union Secretary for Steel, will declare open the celebration and the meeting on Monday.

Students to benefit

Seventy-five school students will take part in the proceedings of the NMD and the technical meeting. Opportunities in the field of metallurgy will be explained to them.

Work to be translated

As the institute's publication in English on iron and steel was well-received by schoolchildren, the organisation proposed to translate the work into Bengali, Marathi, Hindi and Tamil, said Dr. Raj, also the president of the IIM.

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