100 crore grant for universities' makeover

Ahmedabad: The state government has allocated Rs 100 crore for renovation and repair of university buildings in the state of Gujarat. The decision to do so was taken at a meeting of all the registrars in the state.

Officials said the higher education department held a meeting with registrars of the eight university and the government was informed the University Grants Commission was allocating funds for the construction of new buildings but there were no grants from either the state government or UGC for repair and maintenance of existing building.

After receiving the complaints, the state government formed a committee which representatives from Gujarat University, M S University and Saurashtra University. The committee will also have the education secretary and finance secretary as members. The secretary will decide on allocation of grants to universities. The government has said that the committee will scan every proposal and will allocate funds from the Rs 100 crore corpus.

The allocated funds will have to be utilized before March 31, 2015. Officials said that at very least, the work orders will have to be issued before March 31.

The government made it clear that there would be no approval for maintenance of fountains or gardens under this grant.

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Taking the lead, Gujarat University has decided to send proposals for work worth Rs 12 crore. Of this, proposals worth Rs 6 crore have been sent for approval of the committee. Officials said that among the proposals already are those for renovation of hostel blocks and other department building constructed before 1980. The cost of renovation of hostel blocks and department buildings was estimated to be around Rs 5 crore. Gujarat University has also sent a proposal worth Rs 1.5 crore for extension of the ladies' hostel and for the construction of a hostel to accommodate 200 girls.

Officials said the next meeting of the committee is scheduled for Tuesday.