The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : ‘Vizag ideal for IIT location’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 02, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

‘Vizag ideal for IIT location’

B. Madhu Gopal

The city has all infrastructure facilities, says professor

VISAKHAPATNAM: The burgeoning metropolis, situated between Chennai and Kolkata, is the ideal location for establishment of an IIT. Billed as one among the fastest growing cities in the world, the city is witnessing rapid growth in the areas of industry and infrastructure, and of late, on the IT-front.

Some of the software majors have already anchored in the Port City and many others are raring to follow suit. There are many major industries like Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, Hindustan Shipyard Limited and Bharat Heavy Plate and Vessels to mention a few and software giants like HSBC and Satyam while Wipro is soon setting up its shop. There will be a huge demand for highly-skilled technical manpower from the upcoming industries in the next few years.

The Visakhapatnam Airport is being modernised and night landing facilities will be introduced very soon. The upgraded airport can accommodate large aircraft like Boeings. These facilities are also essential for the setting up of an IIT. This is because an IIT will require visiting faculty and dignitaries from various parts of the country and abroad and in the absence of night landing facilities and proper connectivity they will be reluctant to the visit the city. All these facilities strongly weigh in favour of Visakhapatnam as the ideal destination for setting up an IIT, feels a senior professor.

“IIT graduates are welcomed with open arms by employers across the world, particularly, in the US. The tremendous response has prompted many countries like China to go for such institutions. When that is the case, where is the point in resting content with just seven IITs for a billion plus population,” feels Varada Raja Kumar Ratnam, Dean of Academic Affairs, IIT Kharagpur, who hails from the city. The number of IIT aspirants is growing with each passing year and Andhra Pradesh is contributing about one-eighth of the total number of J.E.E. qualified students in the country.

Coming to Andhra University College of Engineering (AUCE) that has been given autonomous status recently, it has got the infrastructure to upgrade it into an IIT. “Our college is producing on an average more number of Ph. Ds in engineering than all the seven IITs put together,” says its principal, Allam Appa Rao.

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