CM Naveen Patnaik announces Rs 1,500 crore masterplan for OUTR

BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday approved a Rs 1,500 crore master plan for Odisha University of Technology and Research (OUTR) here to develop it in the lines of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).

The budget for the university was sanctioned during a review meeting on infrastructure, management and teaching. The fund will be spent within three years. While Rs 1,000 crore will be invested in infrastructure development in the first year, the rest amount will be spent for improvement of other facilities.

The Chief Minister said that steps will be taken to encourage entrepreneurship among the students to promote startup culture. He announced that an incubation centre will also come up in the university through tie-up with other educational institutions and research centres in the country and outside. He said that care will be taken to develop new patents and through research in the university.  

Stating that new-age technology has brought with it high quality education, the Chief Minister said that this required opening new courses and research facilities so that the university can emerge as a centre of excellence.Earlier known as College of Engineering and Technology (CET), the strength of OUTR will be increased from the present 4,600 to 10,000 in the next five years, he said. Starting as CET in 1981, the OUTR shifted to its own campus over 100 acre at Ghatikia in Bhubaneswar in 2001. The university is the only educational institution in the State which has bagged NAAC A grade. The institute received university status in 2021.