New Delhi, Sep 21 : NRI billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta group has started the process of inviting bids for construction of buildings and other infrastructure facilities for its ambitious Rs 15,000 crore Vedanta University project, but the academic session is expected to start only by 2010/2011 due to land acquisition delays.
The a multi-disciplinary university project of Anil Agarwal Foundation, which would be spread over 8,000 acres in Puri district of Orissa, was originally scheduled to start this year but has been postponed as issues related to land acquisition has delayed the construction work, Anil Agarwal Foundation's Commercial Head C Joseph said from Puri.
As part of its vendor selection process, the foundation invited expression of interest in a public advertisement across the national dailies from contractors, suppliers and service providers in areas like construction of institutional buildings and townships, power station and other facilities.
Joseph said that the current invitation for EOIs is a follow-up of a previous one as the job requires numerous contractors due to its large size.
The construction work is expected to start soon and the foundation has already mobalised the piling contractor and is in process of finalising other contractors, he added.
The Government of Orissa and Anil Agarwal Foundation had signed an MoU in 2006 to set up a private university with a donation of one billion dollars (Rs 4,500 crore) as endowment amount from Anil Agarwal.
When asked about the current status of the project, Joseph said that land acquisition process was in progress.
"There have been delays in land acquisition and hence the construction is also delayed, academic sessions are now expected to start only in 2010 /2011," he said.
"Designs for many of the buildings and road and Utility networks are nearing completion, Parallelly on the academic side, a lot of work on the curriculum development and international faculty recruitment is in progress," he added.
When asked about problems faced in land acquisition and reports about the opposition from farmers, Joseph said, "Land acquisition is a slow process, one cannot expect to get land overnight, not only in Orissa, but anywhere in India."
However, the foundation's pro-active village sustainability actions are paying off and it has already initiated many CSR projects.
Issues related to land acquisition have emerged as a major bottleneck for many a project by corporate houses in the recent past, including Tatas who have suspended work at their Rs one-lakh Nano car project in Singur, West Bengal due to opposition over land acquisition.
Stating about the reason behind the delay in project, Joseph said, "Land acquisition is a slow process, one cannot expect to get land overnight, not only in Orissa, but anywhere in India".
"Our pro-active village sustainability actions are payingoff. We have a large support base of people who want a better life for their children. We have initiated many CSR projects which are mainly directed towards the education of children of land givers", he added.
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