A major part of the funding will be used to offer challenge grants and equipment for central research facility of the institute.
On Thursday, a grant of Rs 456 crore was sanctioned by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) for IIT-Kharagpur and three other IITs for developmental projects. This was confirmed through a tweet by the HRD Ministry, which stated granting of Rs 456.10 crore as one-time additional capital funding for these institutes. The funding has been earmarked for lab infrastructure, equipment, etc. Rs 151.19 crore has been earmarked for IIT-Kharagpur, Rs 105 crore for IIT-Delhi, Rs 103.41 crore for IIT-Madras and Rs 96.5 crore for IIT-Bombay.
“IIT-Kharagpur has been focusing towards attracting young talented academicians and post-doctoral fellows from across the world. For this, we need, on one hand, world-class laboratories, high-end equipment to conduct cutting-edge research, and on the other hand, quality living experience such as accommodation facilities,” said IIT-Kharagpur Director Partha Pratim Chakrabarti.
On the basis of proposals submitted by older IITs for augmentation of infrastructure and facilities for holistic excellence, the funding was given an approval.
Planning has already been done to build lab infrastructure of international level and acquire equipment for technological convergence domains like manufacturing, transportation, VLSI design, cloud computing, smart infrastructure and affordable healthcare.
“We will soon undertake a housing project for facilitating international faculty and post-doctoral fellows,” added Chakrabarti.
This funding will also help in boosting students’ innovation projects. Apart from that, a major part will also be used to offer challenge grants and equipment for central research facility of the institute, so that both faculty and students can use it for research work.