Gautam Buddha varsity may open in ’08

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=236827
MAYA IMPACT: CONSTRUCTION WORK TO CONTINUE TILL 2 AM TO MAKE UP FOR THE ‘LOSS OF THREE YEARS’
Gautam Buddha varsity may open in ’08

Aman Sharma
Noida, May 17: LYING virtually in ruins for the past three years, Mayawati’s 511-acre Gautam Buddha University in Greater Noida might start classes from the next academic year. To make up for the “loss of three years”, officials have decided to accelerate the University’s construction at record pace.
“What should have been a full-fledged university by now has become a jungle. Fast completion the university is priority for the new government. I have issued orders for work to start from morning till 2 am and I’m personally supervising the process to ensure it is full-pace. We hope to start functioning from the next academic year and I have set a deadline that all work here should be complete in three years time,” says Lalit Shrivastava, new Chairman, Noida Development Authority (NDA).
Since Tuesday, over a dozen JCB cranes and 200 workers have been pressed into service here to clear the over-grown shrubs at the campus and clean the statues. A new transformer has been set up to light up the campus and ensure that work continues in the night as well.
The new NDA chairman has also initiated a probe to ascertain whose orders halted the university’s construction in August 2003. “Strict action would be taken against the officials found responsible for stalling the project. The probe will also include how much loss has been incurred in the past three years after construction was stopped,” said the chairman. Former chairman during the past three years under Mulayam’s rule, Rakesh Bahadur, was shifted on Monday.
Initial findings in the probe have revealed that the work was not re-started even after two committees set up to
probe allegations of bungling of funds gave the project a clean chit. The deadline for the project was 2004 end. “When work was stopped on the project, Rs 73 crore had already been spent on land acquisition and Rs 14 crore on the statues, stone and boundary wall. The allegation of the former government was that much more money was spent - Rs 75 lakh on the 15-ton Gautam Buddha statue while Rs three crore on five other statues of Bhim Rao Ambedkar and monks,” said a senior Noida Authority official. Two committees, one headed by retired IAS officer Vijay Mathur and another headed by former NOIDA CEO Brajesh Kumar, later gave the project a clean chit.
As per officials, the world-class Gautam Buddha University will set new standards for institutions of higher learning in the country and will cover a wide range of subjects including humanities, science and technology, law and management at undergraduate and graduate levels. Such studies will necessarily be multi-disciplinary in nature and will creatively synthesize the strengths of different departments in different colleges of the university, add officials