Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar likely to inaugurate AKU campus this month

PATNA: The campus of Aryabhatta Knowledge University (AKU) at Mithapur is ready. CM Nitish Kumar is likely to inaugurate it this month. The university administration has already started the shifting process.

“The date for inauguration of the campus has not been decided yet, but we hope it will be soon. The academic and administration blocks have already become operational,” AKU pro-VC SM Karim said.

CM Nitish had laid the foundation stone of AKU campus in August 2015. The university was set up in 2010 and it has been functioning from a makeshift campus on the Chanakya National Law University (CNLU) campus since then.

There are 103 colleges (including 11 medical colleges and 34 engineering colleges) affiliated to AKU.

The AKU campus is spread over an area of 7.5 acres. It has different G+8 blocks. Besides, there are residential buildings, hostels and the vice-chancellor’s office and residence.

Officials said the estimated cost of the campus is around Rs100 crore and one more building is still under construction. It is likely to be commenced from the next academic session.

AKU official Abhijeet said 90% of the offices have been shifted to the new campus. “The administrative block on the new campus has become functional and we are carefully transferring all the documents from CNLU to our own campus. Students have been allotted the hostels at AKU,” he said.

According to officials, two new courses — Centre for River Studies and Centre for Mass Communications and Journalism — would start from the academic session 2019-20 from the building, which is still under construction and would be ready by 2019, he said.