New Delhi: The Government on Thursday approved the
setting up of a full-fledged permanent centre of National
Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) at Raebareli, the Lok
Sabha constituency of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
"The centre would benefit a large number of students from
Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring states who aspire to join
courses conducted by NIFT," an official statement said after
the meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh.
NIFT has an extension centre at Raebareli at present.
The government said once the new centre becomes
operational, student enrollments will double to over 550.
The Raebareli NIFT Centre had become operational from
August, 2007 and there are about 250 students enrolled in it.
In November 2007, the Cabinet had decided to set up a
full-fledged permanent Centre in place of an extension Centre
at Raebareli. This was to be done on NTC land.
"However, this could not become possible and hence it has
been approved to convert the existing temporary Centre into a
permanent one on 11.46 acres of land provided by ITI," the
statement added.
ITI Ltd will provide built-up space, as per the designs
approved by NIFT, on lease to NIFT for running the permanent
NIFT Centre, the statement said.
The outlay for the centre has been revised to Rs 94.22
crore, up from Rs 62.35 crore earlier.
"The total cost involved is Rs 94.22 crore including Rs
59.72 crore for construction by ITI and Rs 34.50 crore for
academic support, academic infrastructure, interiors, rentals,
etc," the statement said.
The outlay for the centre has been revised to Rs 94.22
crore, up from Rs 62.35 crore earlier.
"The total cost involved is Rs 94.22 crore including Rs
59.72 crore for construction by ITI and Rs 34.50 crore for
academic support, academic infrastructure, interiors, rentals,
etc," the statement said.
The Government said Rs 59.72 crore would be provided
directly to ITI Ltd for construction of buildings as one-time
grant in aid.
"The infrastructure and other facilities at the permanent
Centre would ease pressure on existing Delhi NIFT Centre and
minimise the regional mismatch between the number of seats
available and the number of applicants based on present
locations of NIFT Centres," it added.
NIFT has 15 centres including the one at Raebareli.
Besides, the four metros, there are centres at Hyderabad,
Kannur, Patna, Kangra, Gandhinagar, Bangalore, Bhopal,
Shillong, Bhubaneswar and Jodhpur. These centres admit about
2,180 students annually.
PTI
