With the granting of national status on a par with IITs becoming just a formality, Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy (IIPE) (popularly known as petroleum university), is getting ready to sign MoUs with Texas A&M University (TAMU) and University of Houston for collaborative programmes.
The Rajya Sabha adopted the bill to accord national status to IIPE on Wednesday. The institute, which is temporarily functioning at Andhra University College of Engineering here admitted the first batch of 100 students into B.Tech in chemical and petroleum engineering from 2016-17 based on score in the JEE (advance).
“We are set for a bright future ahead. We will shortly sign MoUs with TAMU and University of Houston. Representatives from TAMU will be visiting the city in the first week of January. We will visit the United States in February and hold further talks with the two premier institutes,” IIPE director V.S.R.K. Prasad told The Hindu.
Prof. Prasad will visit the United States and interact with the officials of University Houston. Proposals have also been received for tie-up with Robert Garden University and Oxford Institute of UK. TAMU and University of Houston and IIPE will have understanding for faculty exchange and research and development activity.
IIPE has been allotted 20.18 acres at Vangali in Sabbavaram mandal where Indian Maritime University is setting up its campus. IIPE has asked APIIC to construct the boundary wall at an estimated cost of ₹9 crore.
IIPE has received a corpus grant of₹32 crore from Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and funding of ₹23.5 crore from Oil Industry Development Board. It also got an endowment fund of ₹200 crore from ONGC, HPCL, GAIL, IOCL and OIL. BPCL is expected to release some grant shortly.
For construction of its campus in two phases, once the bill on granting status on par with IIT, it will get ₹655 crore from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Prof. Prasad said their plan was to construct the buildings in two phases in eight years. “If everything goes well, we want to function from our own campus from 2020,” he remarked.
