Maharashtra: Wardha Road to be the new NIPER location

Nagpur:The venue of the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) has been changed. It will now be constructed on Wardha road, instead of Amravati Road, as decided earlier. Adjacent to Maharashtra National Law University(MNLU) NIPER would be set up on a 40 acres stretch in Kaladongri, revealed the collect orate office sources.

After AIIMS, IIM, IIIT, MNLU, and GCOE, NIPER will be sixth top level institution on the Wardha Road. Union Minister , Finance, Arun Jaitley was the first to announce this during the last year's budget.

The change of location came about after a team of Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Ministry that visited the old site near Mohagaon on Amravati Road, about 20 kms from the city and expressed its dissatisfaction over the location. Collector Sachin Kurve, them escorted them to the present chosen location, which they took a liking for, as top institutions were coming up on it and also because the logistics of the place were favourable. The teams nod for the Kaladongri location had Karve asking the State Higher and Technical Education Department to complete the formalities of handing over the land. the task was entrusted to Mumbai-based Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) , which then had the land negotiations transferred to the Joint Director , Technical Education's office in the city

"We're now trying to get no-objection certificates (NOCs) from various departments for handing over the land for prestigious institution. Since the area was being handed over to the central ministry, lot of documentation is required. But it's now confirmed that Kaladongri land has been finalized," said Joint Director,Technical Education Gulabrao Thakre to TOI.

Asked about the sudden shift of venue, Thakre responded saying he was unaware of it, as the collector and the central team had taken the decision between themselves.

However, sources attributed the change in place for NIPER to top pharma industries like Glenmark, coming up at Mihan, and pharmacy major, Lupin being already in operation at Mihan, in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) with plans of massive expansion. "The central team may have thought that students would be at convenience while visiting the pharma industries in Mihan rather than going all the way from Amravati Road," sources revealed.

Interestingly, when the concept of NIPER was mooted, Maharashtra as chosen to be its place of inception, however, lack of political will resulted in the prestigious institute going to Mohali in Punjab.

Thereafter, many NIPERs were established at Ahmadabad, Hajipur (Bihar), Hyderabad, Kolkata, Rai Bareli and Guwahati. Maharashtra was never recommended for it.