India, July 14 -- The West Bengal government is planning to submit a proposal to the Centre seeking IIT status for the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST), Shibpur, Union Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar said on Monday after a Centre-state meeting on education. "The state government wants to submit a proposal. Once the proposal is received, the Centre will certainly consider whether it can be upgraded to an IIT," Majumdar said. He said IIEST had originally been considered for conversion into an IIT but was instead upgraded as IIEST after the then state government did not agree to the proposal. Also Read - Ahmedabad blasts: HC cites scale of terror, conspiracy to uphold death penalty for 38 IM operatives Majumdar said upgrading the institute to an IIT would strengthen its academic standing and attract more students. West Bengal Higher Education minister Jagannath Chattopadhyay said IIEST, formerly Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU) and before that Bengal Engineering College, has the campus and infrastructure comparable to several newer IITs. "If we can upgrade it to an IIT, Kolkata will have another IIT and it will attract more talented students," he said. In a separate announcement, Majumdar said a Rs 500-crore expansion project at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta would move forward after the state agreed to facilitate the required no-objection certificate. He said the Centre-funded project had remained stalled because a no-objection certificate from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation was pending. "I thank the Chief Minister and the education ministers for taking the initiative. The NOC will now be available," he said.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.