BANGALORE: A year may have passed since the foundation was laid for Visvesvaraya Institute of Advanced Technology (VIAT), a worldclass institute of Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) planned to be constructed on par with the IITs, but it still remains grounded.The foundation stone for the institute was laid on February 24, 2010. The state government had provided 200 acres of land at Muddenahalli, the birth place of Sir M Visveswaraya. When contacted, H Maheshappa, Vice- Chancellor VTU, said that the land given to them needs much work. “The land lies in hilly region with rocks. We need to blast and make it plain, which will take at least six months, if any construction is to be made on it,” he said. Maheshappa, who took over as VC in July 2010 had in August last year told Express that the project was delayed due to transition between the V-Cs. Then, he said that he had just taken over as VC and will look into the matter. One year later, the V-C seems to have a different reason for the delay.However, Maheshappa informed Express that they are planning to start new courses in PG under VIAT in their regional centres in Bangalore, Mysore, Belgaum and Gulbarga. He said that by end of September 2010, they will start MTech in Cyber Security, Computer Application, Geotech and Thermal Energy, among other courses. When questioned about faculty recruitment, he said that the recruitments will be made by then. “If we do not get experts, we will go for experts on deputation,” he added. The V-C averred that the syllabus for the courses is ready. “This year, we will start at least five MTech courses. Once the building is ready at Muddenahalli in Chikkaballapur, we will start more PG courses.VIAT will be a researchoriented institute,” he said.VIAT will also offer MTech in Forensic Science. For this, the V-C said, we will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, so that their experts will teach students here on deputation.The campus is being developed at a cost of `75 crore, excluding expenditure on l a b o r a t o r i e s a n d equipment.
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