New Delhi(IANS) : Legislative hurdles were cleared Friday for the Rs.4.3-billion Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology at Rae Bareli, the constituency of Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi, with the upper house of Indian parliament passing the relevant bill.
The Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament, had already cleared the bill for the proposed institute, which will serve as a nursery for world-class human resources in the field of petroleum technology.
A recent study conducted by consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers has estimated that the gap between the availability and requirement of trained manpower in this field in India would be about 36,000 by 2019.
“To substantially meet the shortfall of trained manpower in the petroleum sector, it has been decided by the government to set up this institute,” said Petroleum Minister Muril Deora while moving this bill for consideration by the Rajya Sabha.
“It is in the interest of the nation that the government nurture the institute in its nascent and crucial stage of development to enable it to launch and run its programmes without compromise and set up world-class infrastructure while offering courses of a high standard,” Deora said.
“In the absence of the status of a ‘institute of national importance’, it would not be possible to attract eminent faculty members and meritorious students,” the minister added.
“The total estimated capital cost of the project is Rs.4.35 billion, which would be partially met through budgetary support of Rs.2.85 billion. The remaining Rs.1.5 billion would come from the Oil Industry Development Board, which is under the administrative control of the petroleum ministry,” the minister added.
“The total estimated recurring expenditure of Rs.2.6 billion would be met from the accrual of interest on endowment fund of Rs.2.5 billion to be created with the contribution of public oil public sector undertakings (PSUs), student fees, donations and other earnings of the institute. The institute is envisaged to be self-sufficient by 2015-16,” the minister added.
“The institute will commence its academic operations by admitting students in basic undergraduate courses from academic year 2008-09 from a rented campus. On its becoming fully operational, the institute would have 7 bachelor of technology, six integrated masters degrees, 8 Master of technology and Master of business administration, and 12 postgraduate diploma and PhD programmes,” the minister said.