Belagavi: Education hub renews pitch

Various organizations, seers, politicians and intellectuals of Belagavi have been fighting for an IIT in Belagavi for several years. They believe the city has many things in its favour, including its location on the Pune-Bengaluru National Highway. It’s a border city close to Maharashtra and Goa with good road, air and rail connectivity. It’s about 500km from three state capitals -- Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad and Goa capital’s Panjim about 130km away.It also has a good climate and cosmopolitan environment thanks to hundreds of overseas students in a host of institutions who make this city an education hub. It’s also the headquarters of the Visvesvaraya Technological University, Rani Channamma University and KLE University.
Belagavi is recognized as the state’s second capital and the government has built the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha here and a legislature session is held there once a year.
The demand for an IIT has been there for quite a while. BS Yeddyurappa and Sadananda Gowda had written letters to the central government when they were chief ministers about having an IIT in Belagavi. A team led by former MLA Abhay Patil had collected signatures of 127 legislators supporting his demand for an IIT in Belagavi and met the then finance minister P Chidambaram. Seers, intellectuals and professional organizations have met several times to keep up the pressure on the state and Centre.
Belagavi MP Suresh Angadi is lobbying with the Centre to bring IIT to Belagavi. He said he’ll meet human resources minister Smriti Irani soon and convince her why Belagavi is the right place.
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