Minister assures proposed institute coming soon

MANGALORE: The state will soon get an exclusive engineering institute after engineer statesman Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya at his native place -- Mudenahalli -- in Chikballapur district. The government had acquired 200 acres land for the proposed Visvesvaraya Institute of Advanced Technology (VIAT) which will be set up under Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU).The institute will offer engineering courses from undergraduate to research level.
In an informal chat with reporters on the sidelines of Golden Jubilee Fifth Global Alumni Convention of NITK at Srinivasnagar near here on Saturday, the minister for higher education Aravind Limbavali, said the foundation stone laying ceremony for the new institute would be held shortly. The vice-chancellor, registrar and syndicate of VTU are already working in the direction of setting up the institute, Limbavalli added.
VIAT will offer diversified and advanced engineering courses, Limbavalli said, adding that efforts will be made to go in for memorandums of understanding with select foreign universities to offer some of the courses mooted. Limbavalli said while the government does not intend to set up any more engineering colleges, the VIAT will act as centre of excellence in engineering and strive to go beyond conventional engineering teaching.
On mushrooming of engineering colleges across Karnataka despite the fact that more than 11,000 engineering seats were not filled in many engineering colleges during this academic year, Limbavalli said it is left to the managements of educational institutions who seek permission to start such colleges to realise this. "We will appreciate their foray in to general (and not professional) education where a lot needs to be done," he said.
Government has released funds for augmenting infrastructure in around 100 government engineering, degree and polytechnic colleges. Steps have been taken to recruit staff for the engineering colleges. The new staff recruited to polytechnics will be deputed after counselling is over. "The counselling will first be held for the existing polytechnic staff, and this will be followed by counselling for newly recruited staff," he noted.