Staff Reporter
The proposal sent by Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU) for its four projects worth Rs 100 crore have got approval from the State Government. The original proposal was of five projects, but its cost had gone up to Rs 107.07 crore, so the university excluded one project from the original proposal. But it would be developed by university itself by raising funds through other departments. “Of our five proposals, we got a little more amount for developing an international level sports complex because of which the budget went slightly higher. The Higher and Technical Education Department asked us to drop one project. To have all the projects to be set up in a proper manner, we have decided to remove the project of Tribal Incubation and Skill Development Centre for which we had demanded Rs 13 crore. The Tribal Incubation centre and skill development centre is important in the present context so we will raise special fund for it,” informed Dr Subhash Chaudhari, Vice Chancellor of RTMNU to ‘The Hitavada’
Technology and Energy Park is one of those four projects, to be developed on the land admeasuring 6,134 square meters, and is worth Rs 31.58 crore. University has already got approval of Rs 44.41 crore for developing international-level sports complex for which it had sought just over Rs 30 crore. The university has also proposed a museum of ancient historical and archaeological monuments, which will be open for public. This museum will be developed on a land admeasuring 632 square metres with an estimated cost of Rs 4.27 crore. It was Adv Abhijeet Wanjari, MLC who had demanded Rs 100 crore for RTMNU as it was completing 100 years of its existence. Last year Adv Abhijit Wanjari had given a letter to Ajit Pawar, the then Finance Minister and requested him to sanction Rs 100 crore for the university. According to experts, since university is completing 100 years, Government was expected to sanction money without any proposal. But to have clarity as to where and how university would spend the money, Government sought proper proposal. There was a delay from university side in sending the proposal to Government. Adv Wanjari pushed it with university and Government too. Shinde-Fadnavis came to power and it gave momentum to the proposal. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis after taking charge had called Vice Chancellor to know the progress of the proposal.
Dr Chaudhary said, “We have prepared proposal wherein we have planned some projects that would help university for long. We do not want money for our programmes to be conducted to mark centenary of university. We want to develop some projects that would keep benefiting the generations to come. RTMNU is availing facilities for its students of getting education at IUC-CSIR-DAE, Delhi; Pennsylvania State University, Florida University, USA University of Washington with which it has signed agreements. Similarly the projects which are being developed would help students for next several years.”