The newly established Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy (IIPE) and IIT-Kharagpur signed an MoU at Andhra University here on Thursday, officially announcing that the IIT will be mentoring the new institute for the next three years. IIPE which was set up under the commitment made in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act will operate from August 1 from its temporary campus located in the main administrative block of Andhra University College of Engineering.
IIT-Kharagpur will be mentoring the institute for the next three years by providing support and will act as an advisor till the new institute takes wings.
The MoU papers were exchanged between V.S. Shenoy on behalf of IIPE as a special officer and Prof. Sunando Das Gupta of IIT-Kharagpur in the presence of District Collector N. Yuvaraj, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas Sushma Rath, AU Registrar V. Umamaheswara Rao, Advisor of Academics and Director (in-charge) of IIPE V.S.R.K. Prasad and other officials from AU and HPCL.
Talking to The Hindu post signing of the MoU, Prof. Sunando Dasgupta said that IIT-Kharagpur will support in recruiting faculty, designing curriculum and providing teaching assistance both through contact and distance mode.
“We will also jointly take up research in association with the industry,” he said.
Three departments of IIT-Kharagpur – chemical engineering, mining and geology – would be directly cooperating with the IIPE.
Mr. Shenoy said the institute would be a centre of excellence and play a major role in assisting the country in its energy needs. “The institute will focus on existing exploration and take up research on un-explored terrain and the idea is to reduce the dependence on foreign technology. IIPE will play an important role in research and development in the fields concerned in association with the industry,” he said.
The institute backed financially, academically and with quality industry-academia interface by majors such as HPCL, IOCL, ONGC, GAIL, OIL, OIDB, BPCL and Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
Ms. Sushma said that the government would be pumping in about Rs. 655 crore as capital for the institute.
She also said that it may take three years for the new campus to come on the land allotted by the State government.
200 acres allotted
The State government has allotted 200 acres to IIPE at Sabbavaram and is yet to construct the boundary wall and hand it over to the institute.
