CM to lay stone for veterinary college in Theni district today

THENI

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami will lay the foundation stone for the new Veterinary College and Research Institute through the video-conferencing facility on December 10.

Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam told reporters here on Wednesday that the institute would come up on a sprawling 253.64 acres of land at Thappakundu near Veerapandi near here on an outlay of ₹ 265 crore.

The VC & RI officials said that initially 40 students would be admitted to the 2020-21 academic year. The proposed college would have aesthetically designed administrative blocks with smart classrooms, separate hostels for boys and girls, Dean’s bungalow, warden quarters and guest house.

Further, it comprises 15 specialised departments with modern laboratory facilities, including dairy and meat processing plants, livestock farm complex to demonstrate animal production techniques and a veterinary clinical complex to train the students in veterinary services with state of the art facilities.

Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University at present has five constituent Veterinary Colleges at Chennai, Namakkal, Orathanadu, Tirunelveli and Salem. Establishment of the VC&RI here would fulfill the livestock/ poultry service requirements of Madurai, Virudhunagar and Dindigul districts.

Since the proposed location is being the boundary of the nearby Kerala State, there would be immense scope for processing and marketing of livestock products including milk, meat and egg, officials added.