AGARTALA, Feb 7 (TIWN): Chief Minister Manik Sarkar on Sunday monitored the work progress of the new building construction of MBB state University at MBB college premises. Chief Minister was accompanied by Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty, Chief Secretary Yash Pal Singh and others. The left front government in Tripura has decided to set up a ‘state university’ to improve the scope of higher education. The government plans to launch the university at Maharaja Bir Bikram College, which has a large campus, to encourage teaching environment in the capital city. To widen the higher education scope the state came up with this proposal of establishing this new state University other than already running Tripura Central University. MBB University would start functioning from current academic session (2016-17) in the MBB College premises, official sources said. It is to be mentioned here that the government has already begun a process to appoint Vice Chancellor (VC) for the proposed MBB Varsity and the process is expected to get completed by March itself.

 Initially, the Varsity would start with five city based Colleges including MBB College. A proposal seeking bifurcation of five city based degree colleges has already been sent to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). The state varsity is scheduled to start its maiden journey from upcoming academic session. Currently, two Varsities- ICFAI and Tripura University are functioning in the state.

A State University is to be established at the Maharaja Bir Bikram (MBB) College in State Tripura, aimed at broadening the higher education prospects as informed by official sources.

It is expected that from year 2016 the new state university’s academic session would commence. MBB is one the oldest college of state Tripura and due to the extensive campus it is chosen as a site to setup the University at MBB College.

A setup of an English medium Science College in the grounds of the old central jail is also planned in the cards by the state government. The old Central Jail is chosen as the premises for the science college as the new Central jail was constructed at Bishalgarh, which is roughly 16 km from the old jail. The State University Bill was initially conceptualized as to come up centering the Maharaja Bir Bikram (MBB) College campus in Agartala city. The government considered a separate state university since several issues unique for the state couldn’t be accommodate in the guidelines of the central university, a source informed.

The government has chosen to start the State University in the Maharaja Bir Bikram College campus, renaming the college as Maharaja Bir Bikram University as a sign of respect to the history and tradition of the institute.