A brand new Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) [project report, circular, press note, counseling brochure, annexure] is currently being established in Bhubaneswar (FAQ), the vibrant, modern, capital city of Orissa. It is among the six new IITs that are scheduled to start classes this year. (The others are: IIT Hyderabad, IIT Patna, IIT Rajasthan, IIT Punjab and IIT Gandhinagar. Two other new IITs were announced to be established in Indore and Himachal Pradesh. But classes won't start there in 2008.) Bhubaneswar IIT is uniquely placed to become one of India’s top IITs within a decade.

This fledging institution will be the heart of Bhubaneswar, a burgeoning, modern city in eastern India with a population of 16.36 lakhs. It has all the amenities of a world-class metropolis: wide roads, luxury hotels, malls, restaurants, clubs, bookshops, museums, gardens, water parks and fountains. A picturesque city with boulevards, gardens and beautifully painted walls, Bhubaneswar seems to have it all, minus the traffic, water problems, power cuts and the mega slums that dot most cities of India. It is well connected to the rest of the country by air, rail, and road. The IIT Bhubaneswar is reported to be located next to the Chandaka-Dampara sanctuary a couple of kms from the Mahanadi river. (*Update*: There has been a change in location. A site closer to the airport, next to the Khurda Rd station, and very close to the NISER location, is now the site that the state government prefers. A central government team will soon visit to finalize the site. If this new site is chosen, having the IISc-type science institute NISER and IIT Bhubaneswar close to each other would be awesome and unique.)

Many of Orissa’s famed temples dot the Bhubaneswar landscape, and world famous attractions such as UNESCO world heritage site Konark, Puri beach, and Chilika lake and bird sanctuary are about an hour away. Bhubaneswar is one of India’s major tourist hubs with history and geography right by its side. The Rock edicts of Ashoka are at one end of the city in Dhauli, right by the Daya river, while the picturesque Chandaka-Dampara sanctuary, as big as Bhubaneswar itself, lies adjacent on the west bordering the mighty Mahanadi. To the north is the garden of the Gods, Nandankanan, and the Kathjodi river, separating Bhubaneswar from its twin, the millennium city of Cuttack.

With all major Indian software firms and some major BPO firms such as Infosys, Satyam, TCS, Wipro, Mindtree and Hexaware setting shop here, Bhubaneswar is also the eastern India’s IT hub. It is the East Coast Railway (ECOR) HQ and has headquarters of various private and public sector companies such as Navaratna NALCO, POSCO-India and Dhamara Port Company Ltd. Four major industrial clusters are about 100 kms from Bhubaneswar in each of the four directions: Kalinganagar to the North, Paradeep to the east, Chhatrapur to the South and Angul-Talcher to the west. With Orissa leading the country in investment, bagging 30 percent of the total investment in India in the last quarter (fourth quarter of 2007-08), mainly in the industrial and infrastructure sector, Bhubaneswar is abuzz with optimism.

Yet what sets Bhubaneswar apart is its rise to prominence as India’s foremost knowledge hub. The metropolitan area is already home to Utkal University, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Ravenshaw University, Utkal University of Culture, KIIT Deemed University, Siksha `O' Anusandhan deemed University, Xavier Institute of Management (XIMB), and an International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT). Existing research institutions in the Bhubaneswar metropolitan area include the Institute of Physics, the Institute of Life Sciences, the Institute of Mathematics and Applications, the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, the Central Rice Research Institute, the Central Institute of Fresh Water Aquaculture, Regional Plant Resources Center and the Regional Medical Research Center.

Several national level institutes have recently been established or are being established in Bhubaneswar. Besides IIT Bhubaneswar, they include the National Institute of Science, Education and Research (NISER), which is equivalent to the IISERs but funded by the DAE, and which is currently admitting its second batch of students, an AIIMS, and a centrally funded World Class Central University (WCCU). At present Bhubaneswar is the only city in India that is scheduled to have an IIT, a science institute (NISER) and a WCCU; a IIIT and an AIIMS-like institute are additional pluses. In addition, the Anil Agarwal foundation is establishing Vedanta University in Puri, which is about 40 kms from the outer edges of Bhubaneswar. It has a budget of $3 Billion (Rs. 12,000 crores) and includes a personal pledged donation of $1 Billion (Rs 4,000 crores) by Mr. Anil Agarwal. Vedanta University is envisioned to be India’s answer to Stanford and Harvard. Other universities that are coming up in the Bhubaneswar area include ICFAI University, Sri Sri University, National Law University and Orissa Open University. At the college level, the Bhubaneswar area has 30+ engineering colleges with another 20+ in the pipeline and four existing medical colleges (SCB, KIIT, SUM, Hi-Tech) with several more in the pipeline.

IIT Bhubaneswar will admit students in three disciplines in 2008: civil engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. In case one may wonder, why civil engineering, instead of computer science that four of the other new IITs are having, one just needs to think of China and Beijing and imagine how far India has to go in terms of infrastructure development and the role of civil engineers in that development. This interview with Anil Agarwal is illuminating in that respect. (He also talks about his vision of Vedanta University.) However, it is expected that in 2009 IIT Bhubaneswar will admit students in Computer Science & Engineering.

IIT Bhubaneswar students will be housed in IIT Kharagpur for the first year, which will act as the mentoring institution of IIT Bhubaneswar for a period of three years. During their stay these students will gain exposure to the established academic and cultural environment of the largest and oldest IIT, which they will carry home to IIT Bhubaneswar.

The Orissa government is extremely supportive of IIT Bhubaneswar and has committed to provide 900 acres of land so as to accommodate future growth of this IIT. The 900 acres is a little less than double the 500 acres required by the central government, and almost double the size of the other new IITs. Thus IIT Bhubaneswar will be the largest IIT among the new ones. With the inherent advantages in terms of its location (either in the midst of rivers, forests and sanctuaries or next to NISER); as the heart of a rapidly growing and industrializing city and state; surrounded and to be driven to excellence by the competition from NISER, WCCU and Vedanta University; and a supportive state government that has put Bhubaneswar in the path of making it the knowledge-hub of the country; IIT Bhubaneswar holds the promise of being the best among the new IITs and becoming one of India’s upper echelon IITs within a few years!

Watch out this site and the accompanying blog for more information on IIT Bhubaneswar.

Chitta Baral and Sanjoy Das.