From Our Correspondent
NALANDA : Construction activity has begun here at the Nalanda International University and the first pillars were clearly visible when this correspondent visited the site on January 9.

A signboard at the construction site said that Rs 10.19 crore has been sanctioned for the boundary wall of the proposed university, which would come up on a 450-acre plot located on the eastern Rajgir-Chhabilapur Road in the district.

The boundary wall is being erected by a private construction company called Allied Infrastructure Pvt Ltd which, in turn has been assigned the job by Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Ltd, an undertaking of the state road construction department. The construction work began on December 22, 2011, following the finalisation of the agreement on December 20.

The vice-chancellor designate Gopa Sabharwal says that the architectural design of the new institution would be finalised by the end of this year.

Construction company sources said the boundary wall of the university would be constructed in seven months, while the process to prepare the master plan would begin in three months. The master plan will take care of land usage for construction of academic and residential buildings as well as landscaping of the entire campus.

“The boundary wall would stretch over 8.5 km. About 90 men are at present working at the site" the source said.

Nalanda sub-divisional officer Seema Tripathi said more labourers would start work by the end of January. “The work will pick up pace once the temperature rises a little. Work would continue even at night. Since the temperature is very low now, the labourers are working only during the day,” she said.

Though Sabharwal was non-committal on the date when academic activities would begin at the proposed university, she was specific about the schools that would be built in the first phase.

“A school of historical studies and another of environment and ecology would be the first two institutions to be built in the first phase of academic activities of the university. The nature and structure of the schools, including course structure, specialisation, methodology of faculty selection and constitution of an advisory committee, are being worked out at present. Moreover, the process of faculty selection would be undertaken simultaneously with building construction process. The aim is to make the faculty ready for the schools by the time the building construction work was finalised,” Sabharwal said.

Nalanda varsity Bill gets Lok Sabha approval

NEW DELHI : On August 26 the Lok Sabha adopted the Nalanda University Bill, 2010, which has already been approved by the Rajya Sabha, to set up a Rs 1,005 crore international university at Nalanda in Bihar, where a varsity for Buddhist learning existed over 800 years ago.

Replying to the debate, Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur said the Ministry had taken upon itself to establish the university because it was an international effort by the East Asian Summit comprising 15 countries. The Union government would provide land for the university, which would be established through voluntary funding from the East
Asian Summit members.

Singapore had announced funding of $ 4 million - $5 million for the Nalanda university's library through private donations .

Ms. Kaur said the Bill provided only a framework and structure for the university and that further constitution of the institution and its rules and regulations would be done later.

In the beginning, the university would have six schools for different studies, but the Board of governors had envisaged opening another school for information technology.

The Nalanda Mentor Group, chaired by Professor Amartya Sen, will draft the statutes for the university. It will have schools of Buddhist Studies; Philosophy and Comparative Religions; Historical Studies; International Relations and Peace Studies; Business Management in relation to Public Policy and Development Studies; Languages and Literature; and Ecology and
Environmental Studies.

Till such time the varsity becomes sustainable on its own, it will function as a public-private partnership. The Bihar government has acquired 500 acres of land in Rajgir, near the original Nalanda University site.