Central panel gives in-principle nod for IIT campus at Farmagudi

Panaji: Chief minister Pramod Sawant on Monday said the Central Site Selection Committee has given in-principle approval to a 4.5 lakh sqm land parcel at Farmagudi in Ponda taluka for IIT Goa’s permanent campus. A six-member panel inspected the site.

Sawant said he has invited Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to Goa to lay the foundation stone, after meeting him in Delhi on Sunday.

A senior govt official said the state will transfer the land once formal approval is received. Officials said around 4.5 lakh sqm will be handed over in the first phase, with additional land to be transferred later based on the institute’s requirements.

In April, Sawant announced that the permanent campus would be set up at Farmagudi, following which the state invited the Central Site Inspection Committee to assess and finalise the location.

The Farmagudi proposal follows govt’s recent shortlisting of two new sites and a revisit of an earlier option: Comunidade land at Usgao, the SEZ site at Keri in Ponda, and the former Sanjivani sugar factory site in Dharbandora. Govt earlier dropped plans to build the campus on over 14 lakh sqm of comunidade land at Codar in Ponda after strong opposition from residents. Before shifting focus to Codar, govt had initiated land demarcation at the Sanjivani sugar factory site. Officials said it remains under consideration, though no final decision has been taken.

Operational since 2016, IIT Goa has functioned from a temporary campus at Goa Engineering College in Farmagudi for nearly a decade. Multiple earlier proposals either failed to get approval from the Union education ministry’s site selection committee or drew protests from local communities.

A plan to establish the campus on nearly 10.5 lakh sqm at Rivona in Sanguem, approved by the Union education ministry in Jan 2024, was shelved due to land title issues. An earlier Sanguem site was rejected by Centre as unsuitable, and farmers objected too, claiming cultivation rights. The project even faced resistance at Melauli in Sattari. In Jan 2021, protests escalated into clashes with police, after which Sawant said the project would be relocated, citing “people’s sentiments”.

Sawant also said recruitment by NIT Goa has been kept on hold to protect the interests of Goans seeking jobs at the NIT campus.