Codar becomes 5th site identified by govt for IIT-Goa campus

Panaji: State govt on Friday decided to set up a permanent campus of the Indian Institute of Technology Goa (IIT-Goa) over 14 lakh sqm of comunidade land at Codar in Ponda taluka. It also sent a proposal to the Union education ministry to inspect the land.

This is the fifth site identified for a permanent campus for the institute that became operational almost 10 years ago — in 2016 — and has been functioning from a temporary campus at the Goa Engineering College, Farmagudi, since. Several land parcels identified for a permanent campus for IIT-Goa over the years have either been rejected by the Union education ministry’s site selection committee or have faced protests from locals due to several reasons.

The administrator of comunidades, central zone, Panaji, has already issued a notice to announce that the uncultivated, unused, rocky and barren plot of land, belonging to the comunidade of Codar and bearing survey number 63/2, has been applied for on a perpetual lease (aforamento) basis for setting up the permanent campus of IIT-Goa.

“If any person has any objection to the proposed lease, he/she should submit his/her objection in writing to the administrator of comunidades, central zone, Panaji, within 30 days from the date of the second publication of the notice,” said Aparna B Podiyar, secretary of the office of the administrator of comunidades, said.

State govt had earlier begun demarcating land at the site of the Sanjivani sugar factory in Dharbandora to set up a permanent campus for IIT-Goa, but due to some issues there, it shifted its focus to the site at Codar. Prior to that, plans to set up a campus over nearly 10.5 lakh sqm of land at Rivona in Sanguem — which was officially approved by the Union education ministry in Jan 2024 — were dropped after govt faced issues pertaining to the title of the land.

Centre had earlier rejected land selected for the IIT-Goa campus in Sanguem on account of it being unsuitable for the project. There were also protests from farmers who claimed that they were cultivating in the area. When the project was proposed at Melauli, Sattari, locals organised a sustained protest against it. In Jan 2021, there were clashes between protesters and police personnel at the site. Soon after, chief minister Pramod Sawant, citing “people’s sentiments”, announced that govt would scrap the project and move it elsewhere.

The Union education ministry’s requirements state that 12 lakh sqm is necessary to set up an IIT, but former chief minister Manohar Parrikar had told Centre that given Goa’s land constraints, six lakh sqm would be provided for the campus. There have also been sustained protests against handing over large swathes of land for the campus ever since state govt first identified an area in the Canacona taluka for the campus.



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