Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, the only Grade A+ accredited university in the state, has sought a whopping amount of Rs 230 crore from the state government for its expansion and enhancement of its facilities.
The university has sought Rs 100 crore for upgrading 22 of its teaching departments as centres of excellence (CoEs) and Rs 130 crore for developing central facilities, such as an international standard hostel, learning resource centre, tribal development centre and so forth.
The move follows Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s directives to the department of higher education (DHE) that DAVV should be helped technically and financially so that it can figure in the Top 100 universities in the country and fetch Grade A++ accreditation from National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).
Following the directives, the DHE had lately sought from DAVV its financial requirements for infrastructure expansion and for adding new facilities. “We’ve sent a draft of our financial requirements,” said professor Abhay Kumar, nodal officer, CoE at DAVV. He said they had sought Rs 100 crore for upgrading 22 of its departments/institutes as CoEs. The departments include School of Electronics, International Institute of Professional Studies, Institute of Engineering and Technology, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, School of Physics, School of Chemistry, School of Law and so on.
DAVV has also sought Rs 130 crore for building central facilities, such as a tribal development centre, a learning resource centre (central library), a common multi-storey building for exams, evaluation and confidential work, an international standard hostel for foreign students, a state-of-the-art data centre and so on.
“Eight of the nine districts under DAVV are tribal-dominated. We wish to set up a tribal development centre on the UTD campus for skill development and sports,” Kumar said. “One of the parameters of the NAAC advocates an international standard hostel for foreign students. We lack that facility due to which foreign nationals don’t come to our university for higher studies. We’ll build an international standard boarding facility on the UTD campus,” Kumar added.
DAVV also wants to construct a multi-level learning resource centre which will house a library, an e-library and a computer lab. It has sought funds for an automation project and construction of buildings for the School of Social Sciences and School of Languages.
The university also has plans of a multi-storey building for exams, evaluation and confidential work. Currently, the evaluation building is located on the UTD campus and the exam and confidential departments are situated on the RNT Marg campus. “We want one building for exams, evaluation and confidential work for which funds have been sought from the government,” Kumar said.
