Chandigarh to go for PPP in education

The private sector is going to play a vital role in the field of higher education in Chandigarh as the administration here is coming up with a public-private partnership project in the form of Education City in an area of 150 acre.

The six players for the first phase have already been decided and 26 applications have been shortlisted for the second phase. Six players would be finally shortlisted for phase two.

In phase one, Fortis Healthcare, Maya Acadamy of Advanced Cinematics, Hit Abhilashi Foundation Society and IL&FS, Mumbai-based Shri Vile Parle Kelvani Mandal, Tech Mahindra and DAV College Managing Committee will set up their institutions.

According to sources, the administration will retain the ownership while charging licence fee or lease money from the players.

The private players will also share the revenue with the Chandigarh administration when they commence the courses. "The rent would be calculated on the basis of the current market values (but would not be as high as those of commercial buildings), told one of the officials.

The Education City would have centres of excellence in the fields of hospital management, pharma R&D, software development, 3D animation among other upcoming fields.

The exact allocation of land is yet to be decided but most of the players need 4-6 acre of land. Phase one is likely to mobilise an investment of about Rs 300 crore.

According to sources, the Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics is contemplating of developing a centre for 3D animation on the pattern of the developed countries.

The Chandigarh centre is proposed to be a hub of training activities of Maya.

Fortis Healthcare would foray into hospital management institutes with this project. The president of Fortis Healthcare, Daljit Singh, said that elite programmes to support the critical people, emergency health services and ward management for nurses would be introduced. He added that with the influx of non-resident Indians for treatment, state-of-the-art health care was in demand.

Hit Abhilashi Foundation Society and IL&FS are the contenders for the courses for the pharma sector. They have already signed an MoU with a British University and likely to sign another with a US University for the curriculam.

With the concentration of pharma industry in Himachal Perdesh as a consequences of tax holiday offered to the industry the demand for high end porfessional in pharma sector in north can be met god institutes in pharma sector.

Among other players D A V College Managing Committee has proposed to set up a Biotechnology and Genomics Institute and Tech Mahindra in the field of Information Technology.

Mumbai based Shri Vile Parle Kelvani mandal would be setting up a design institute.