Cases on land holding up IIPE Vizag campus: Centre

New Delhi: The Union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas, Rameswar Teli, in his reply to a question of YSRCP MP V Vijayasai Reddy, on Wednesday said that a litigation was hampering setting up of the full campus of the Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy (IIPE), Visakhapatnam.

He was asked whether the campus of the institute located on leased premises of Andhra University was facing problems in moving on to its own campus. The minister further stated that the IIPE was presently functioning from the leased accommodation provided by the AU on its Engineering College premises.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh had allotted 201.80 acre land in February 2019, and thereafter 175.74 acre was handed over to IIPE. The remainder of 26.06 acre was yet to be handed over to the IIPE due to a court case. The construction work for the boundary wall around the land handed over to the IIPE was underway through the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC), the minister said.

Referring to the expenditure, he said a capital expenditure of Rs 655.46 crore was approved, of which Rs 184.85 crore had been released. So far, Rs 51.50 crore had been spent by IIPE on capital expenditure for creation of capital infrastructure at temporary campus and construction of compound wall at the permanent campus. The development of a permanent campus is subject to the handing over of the remainder of the land, he added.