Authorities fear delay will affect academic schedule  :  Three bits of land identified after survey by a team of officials :  Lands should be handed over in one go, says  SPA Director

VIJAYAWADA: Land for permanent campus continues to elude the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) Vijayawada, which is well into its second academic year.

The Central institution, which is now functioning from the Acharya Nagarjuna University campus, is waiting for the State government’s nod to get the required extent of land in the city for commencing the work of construction of a permanent campus.

The SPA authorities are worried that any more delay in the handing over of the three bits of land identified by a committee that visited the city in August, could upset their plan of moving to the new campus at least by the beginning of next academic year.

“On the academic front we are progressing well, as we have completed the recruitment of faculty and have some future plans. But unless we know where we will have our permanent campus, we will not be in a position to implement any of these plans,” says Shovan K. Saha, Director, SPA Vijayawada.

A team of officials and representatives of the Union Ministry of HRD, SPA and the State government surveyed a few places in the city and outskirts in August, and based on its recommendation the governing board of the SPA came to a conclusion that three bits of land, though situated away from each other, could be made use of to develop an integrated campus.

About 10 acres of unused land of the Government Polytechnic College, 25 acres of Railway land at Ajit Singh Nagar, which was given by the VMC in lieu of the Satyanarayanapuram railway land, and 28 acres of VMC land at Excel plant were identified for the purpose.

The Ministry of HRD addressed a letter to the State government on October 23 seeking handing over of these lands to the SPA. After more than a month, a meeting was finally convened on Thursday by Secretary to the Government for Higher Education (additional charge) Suresh Chanda with Commissioner for Technical Education L. Premchandra Reddy, Krishna District Collector Peeyush Kumar and Prof. Saha.

Waiting for approval

The officials felt that the land at the Government Polytechnic College could be handed over without much delay, but the handing over of the VMC land may take more time as the general body would have to approve it. As for the Railway land, the Ministry of HRD would have to take up the matter with the Ministry of Railways, it was suggested.

However, Prof. Saha feels that integrated development of SPA campus would be affected if the lands are not handed over in one go. “If all the lands are handed over at the same time, we can plan our academic campus, quarters for our staff and other administrative buildings without any confusion,” he points out.