The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : New campus for Madras University

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 17, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

New campus for Madras University

Special Correspondent

President to inaugurate 150th year celebrations

CHENNAI: The University of Madras is all set to expand into a new campus, as part of its 150th year celebrations.

``The State Government has, in policy, granted our request to set up a 150-acre campus located near an arterial road to house a string of new centres of excellence we propose to start as part of the 150th year celebrations. We have suggested three locations — behind our Taramani campus at Perungudi, near Muttukadu on the New Mahabalipuram Road and on the Old Mahabalipuram Road. The Chief Minister has directed the Higher Education Ministry to examine the feasibility of land allotment,'' Vice-Chancellor S. P. Thyagarajan told reporters here on Saturday.

While the Ministry of Human Resources Development will release a Rs.26-crore grant for the 150th year projects, the Centre will chip in with Rs. 100 crore. Some of the centres of excellence that are coming up are Centre for Research on Dravidian Movement, National Centre for Nanosciences and Biomedical Nanotechnology, Centre for Natural Hazards and Disaster Management, Ramanujam Museum and Research Centre and Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution.

President A. P. J Abdul Kalam will inaugurate the year-long celebrations at the university's renovated Senate House on September 4. Governor Surjit Singh Barnala and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi will participate in the inaugural function. The Senate House will also be thrown open to the public then. A total of Rs. 6 crore has been spent on renovation and an additional fund of Rs. one crore will be needed for completion, Mr. Thyagarajan said.

The President will participate in a panel discussion with students and the Chief Minister will declare open the centres of excellence. Several 150th year specials such as the university anthem composed by lyricist Vairamuthu and a First Day Cover will also be released. The virtual university programme would also become operational from the current academic year and in September, the university would be a partner in a pan-African e-network project with 53 African universities by offering master's degree programmes in food sciences and biotechnology through tele-education. In the wake of the answer paper scam that rocked the university circles recently, the university had made an effort to modernise answersheets by introducing security features such as bar-coding and invisible marking, he said.

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