UoH knowledge park scrapped; other projects face the axe too

Updated on: Saturday, July 30, 2011

It's curtains for the controversial Knowledge and Innovation Park (KIP), a research and development project of the University of Hyderabad (UoH) that was set up in 2008. Vice-chancellor (V-C) Ramakrishna Ramaswami, after deliberations with the faculty, has decided to shut it down. KIP, a pet project of ex-VC Seyed E Hasnain, had drawn the ire of the university community who had accused Hasnain of alienating land in the guise of development.

Ramaswamai, who took charge in June, said the project has been scrapped as it was not supported by students or staff. He said that the varsity would reclaim the 200-acre plot and four companies, including a real estate firm, which had set shop, would have to move out of once an agreement is inked. The project was undertaken in collaboration with the AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Ltd ( APIIC)) and state.

Ramaswami indicated that apart from KIP all other projects initiated in the past, especially during Hasnain's tenure, would also be revisited. "The university is one of the most reputed institutions in the country and we should be eady for criticism. In retrospect, some plans may have gone wrong and it is time to set them right," the VC, a physicist from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), said. He said that even academic projects, including the five-year integrated MA programme, would be reviewed by university committees.

Expanding on his vision, he said that instead of new projects the focus would now be on revamping existing ones. Terming the construction on campus as arbitray, he said UoH would have a planning wing and it would include town planners who would advice the engineering wing on future constructions. "In the past 37 years, the university has not had a town planning map. We have now made one and this will form the basis for further construction on campus," he said.

Times of India

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