Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Centre’s nod for school of architecture

VIJAYAWADA: The Union Cabinet’s nod on Thursday to the setting up of a School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) here along with another one in Bhopal, has come as the final and long awaited stamp of approval to the assurance given by Union Minister for Human Resource Development Arjun Singh to Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy more than a year ago.

As the Cabinet cleared an expenditure of Rs.348.50 crores for the two institutions, the proposed SPA here is expected to get about half of the amount.

The Cabinet said that the project would be completed by 2012-13, but it is not clear whether admissions would be made at least from the academic year 2009-10 as expected earlier.

The SPA will offer graduate, post-graduate, doctoral and post-doctoral education in architecture and town planning, while also fostering research of a high order in these areas.

These institutes will “create a cadre of high calibre faculty members who will be devoted to teaching, research and consultancy in all disciplines that deal with planning and architecture.” “Also, SPAs will be socially responsible institutions providing research feedback to the government for physical development of human settlements.

The institutes would also contribute to highly competent and trained manpower that would inevitably impact positively on the economic growth of the country,” the Cabinet noted.

The State government and the district administration have some time ago started creating the required infrastructure for the SPA at Veerapanenigudem, a village located at a distance of just 7 to 8 km from the Gannavaram airport.

The land, about 80 acres identified earlier for the IIIT campus, has been earmarked for the SPA campus.

Officials from the Central government and the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education visited the site on a couple of occasions and suggested the measures that need to be taken for a state-of-the-art campus to come up there.

On its part, the district administration offered to construct a flyover from Pedda Avutapalli to Veerapanenigudem across the railway track to facilitate easy movement of vehicles.

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Centre’s nod for school of architecture

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