Cabinet nod to petroleum institute for Rae Bareli

Rae Bareli, the constituency represented by Congress President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, will get a Rs 435-crore central institute.

"The Cabinet gave its approval for setting up the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology at Jias, in Rae Bareli district, Uttar Pradesh," Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.

The minister said the institute would receive a budgetary support of Rs 285 crore during the 11th Five-Year Plan. The remaining Rs 150 crore would be funded by the Oil Industry Development Board.

The estimated recurring expenditure of Rs 260.58 crore would be met from the interest on the Rs 250 crore Endowment Fund, to be created with contributions from government-owned oil-marketing companies and earnings of the institute.

The institute was originally proposed to be set up by the Bharat Petroleum Corporation. The company had, however, in a report in 2005 to the then Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar mentioned that the project was economically unviable.

The institute will offer undergraduate courses from the 2008-09 academic year. A Bill to this effect will be introduced in the forthcoming session of Parliament.

The institute would become fully operational by 2015-16 and offer B. Tech, master degrees and PhD programmes.

In a statement, the government said the institute would help bridge the shortfall in manpower in the oil industry. PricewaterHouseCoopers in a report said the oil industry would require 36,000 skilled manpower by 2019.