Laterite stone mafia eats away IIT land

BHUBANESWAR: The IIT Bhubaneswar is in a pit. For the laterite stone mafia has not spared the land identified for the prestigious institute at Arugul, about 25 km from here.Three years ago, the all-India institute was allocated to the State after it waged a battle-like campaign against the Centre.Now the good work seems to have gone down the drain as right under the nose of the local revenue and police officials, large chunks of the 935.4 acre earmarked for the IIT are being mined.With pond-like pits, the IIT authorities are most likely to face an uphill task in filling up the area so that work for the campus can go ahead. Boundary walls have been erected along a six-km stretch only. The total length of the perimeter is calculated to be 19 km.The land allocated for the IIT falls under the jurisdiction of two districts - 227.57 acre under Puri and 707.87 acre under Khurda.Investigation revealed that the side belonging to Khurda has so far been found to be the target of the mafia. Workers are being engaged by the mafia during the daytime and they use stone-cutters to segregate the laterite blocks after the land is mined.While the stone blocks are being transported in trucks, the local revenue and the police officials are looking the other way.The illegal quarrying will not only delay the establishment of the IIT Bhubaneswar campus, which is already running behind schedule, but also cause cost overrun.When IIT Bhubaneswar was approved by the Ministry of HRD in 2008, a provision of ` 780 crore was made for six years. Half of the project cost will be on the infrastructure head.The IIT land is not the only one to be targeted by the mafia. A patch of land allocated to BSF too had come under illegal quarrying following which the security force took control of the area, erected barbed-wire fence and posted securitymen. A CPWD assessment later suggested that land reclamation will cost close to ` 3 crore.For the IIT, the loss is expected to be manifold and just not financially. The project is unlikely to meet its 2013 deadline since spadework is yet to start.