BHUBANESWAR: The state government will set up four new universities and two engineering colleges and also roll out a new scheme to provide free textbooks to all students of Classes IX and X.
Presenting the budget for 2026-27, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi announced that the greenfield universities will be set up at Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Bhadrak and Jharsuguda.
“Unlike brownfield universities, which are upgraded from existing colleges, greenfield institutions have the advantage of implementing fundamentally new organisational models and innovative pedagogy in post-graduation courses from day one in line with the NEP-2020 mandate,” he said.
Majhi said the new government engineering colleges will be established at Paradeep and Balangir, while the Odisha University of Technology and Research, Bhubaneswar and Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology, Burla will be transformed into world-class technical universities.
A Centre of Excellence in Mining and Metallurgy will also be set up at the Government College of Engineering, Keonjhar, to meet the rising demand for skilled professionals in Odisha’s rapidly expanding mining and metals sector.
At Rs 37,485 crore, the School and Mass Education (SME), Higher Education, and Skill Development and Technical Education (SDTE) departments combinedly received a lion’s share in the budget.
While Rs 31,997.53 crore provision was made for SME department, Rs 3,664.40 crore was proposed for Higher Education and Rs 1,823.11 crore for SDTE department.
For infrastructure development of technical universities and engineering colleges, the CM proposed an outlay of Rs 235 crore in the budget. He also said the government will set up seven campuses of World Skill Centre by 2047 of which at least five will come up by 2036. He proposed two new campuses at Sambalpur and Berhampur with a total investment of Rs 278 crore for 2026-27.
He also announced a new scheme for supply of free textbooks to all students of Classes IX and X and Rs 32 crore for supply of free uniforms to Shishu Vatika (pre-school) students under Mukhyamantri Chhatra Chhatri Paridhan Yojana.
The budget allocated Rs 1,010 crore under Godabarisha Mishra Adarsha Vidyalaya for development of model primary schools across the state.
