Anantapur: Energy University proposal yet to see light of the day

Anantapur: Energy University was approved by the NDA government way back in 2019 as part of the special package under 2014 AP Reorganisation Act but the project did not make any headway since 2019 ever since Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy took over as the Chief Minister.

At a time when the then TDP government was set to give its final approval to the establishment of the university, the government changed and since the government changed the subject was totally sidelined and ignored.

In 2019, the former chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) S S Nantha, who was appointed consultant of the university, had submitted a report to the government suggesting location of buildings in temporary private accommodation. JNTUA and SKU Vice-Chancellors had also offered their campuses for hosting the university. Subsequently Prof Nantha sent a report to the state government for its final decision on establishing the university in temporary buildings. The university was to give admissions to 800 students for graduate and post graduate courses.

According to sources in the Energy department, the Centre would give an initial grant for buildings and infrastructure creation and later they would hand it over to a consortium of green power companies which are abundant in Anantapur and Rayalaseema districts. All the solar and wind power companies operating in the region will have financial stakes in the running of the university which was planned as a world class university. The former chairman of the AICTE who built a world class AICTE campus at a cost of Rs 200 crore in Delhi would build the university on the same lines in the district, it was planned. The Energy University promised to district is expected to give a further fillip to the government's strategy to create a non-conventional energy circuit with Anantapur, Kurnool and Kadapa districts. About 150 acres of land near Kuderu had been handed over to the consortium. Major stakeholders include AP Transco, AP Genco, private power major Suzlon and others.

Sources said that parties having stakes in the university establishment are expected to share Rs 30 to Rs 35 crore each. About Rs 100 crore would be pumped in under the PPP mode for the varsity establishment. In the first phase, undergraduate courses will be introduced on tapping of non-conventional energy and future development which includes research work on updating technology and cost-effective solar panels manufacturing technology to bring down the cost of solar power projects.