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