DVC to put Rs 100 crore in IIT Kharagpur energy park

Kolkata/Karagpur: Damodar Valley Corporation(DVC) would invest Rs 100 crore towards setting up the energy park in Kharagpur over the next five years.

The project is a part of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharapur's initiative to set up R&D parks for IT, biotechnology and energy sectors at Kharagpur, said Sanjeev Goenka, chairman, board of governors of the IIT.

IIT would invest a total of about Rs 300 crore in upgrading the infrastructure at the institute, which would include increasing the classroom strength and hostel facilities.

This apart, the institute is also in preliminary stages of discussion with the University of Berkeley, USA, for seeting an online teachers training institute for secondary school teachers.

According to George F Smoot, a 2006 Nobel prize winner in Physics who was the chief guest at the convocation ceremony, 'The concept of online training institute for secondary school teachers was started in the US. Later we thought of taking it globally. The experiment has been uccessfully carried out in Japan and China,' he said.

IIT Kanpur would serve as the the central hub for the training institute in India, which would be connected to sub-stations at other IITs.

The centres would be supported by a 24-hours help desk.

The focus of the teachers training institute would to train secondary school teachers with the updated knowledge of science, energy, environment, biotechnology and other science subjects, he said.

IIT Kharapur also plans to add 100 class, accommodating 150 students each, in the coming years.

Nearly 200 tutorial centres would also be added in the campus. Four labs for tea, coffee, telecom and steel research would also be set up in the campus.

Another Rs 50 crore would be invested in setting up a facility for fabrication of semi-conductors.

Over the 11th plan period nearly 3,000 rooms and 6 labs would be added at the institute campus.