A permanent IIT Goa campus will be set up for sure: Chief Minister Pramod Sawant

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant announced on Wednesday, December 21, the government will identify another piece of land for setting up the permanent IIT Goa campus. The declaration comes after the Centre recently said the project site in Sanguem was not suitable.

"The IIT Goa campus would be set up for sure. We are identifying the suitable land to set up the facility," Sawant said, after attending the state cabinet meeting, as per a report by PTI.

Notably, the plan to set up the permanent campus suffered setbacks on two occasions. In January 2021, the proposed IIT Goa campus project was shifted out of Shel-Melavali village in Sattari taluka following protests by villagers. On the latest occasion, the Centre stated that the site at Cortalim village in Sanguem was "inadequate" to set up the facility.

About three weeks ago Union Minister of State (MoS) for Entrepreneurship, Skill Development, Electronics & Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar had stated that the Centre would find a solution to the problems faced in setting up the institute campus. He added that an IIT in Goa was the need of the hour as the government was looking forward to expanding the start-up ecosystem in the coastal state, as per a report by The Herald.

Currently, the institute functions in a temporary campus situated in the Goa Engineering College (GEC) at Farmagudi. An IIT was allotted to the state in 2014, and the institute became functional in July 2016.