Gujarat University’s public works and other ambitious projects have met a roadblock after grants were approved by the Gujarat government during the last five years. Call it the Covid-19 impact or bureaucratic hitches, but the varsity is trying to keep up the pace of over a dozen such projects because the Gujarat government has yet to deliver the Rs 96 crore funding it promised.
Those in know of the development said that since the grants are yet to reach the varsity, it is looking for alternate ways to meet the expenses so the projects do not suffer.
The issue of grant non-disbursement was discussed at GU’s building committee meeting on Monday. In the last five years, projects such as a research park, sports city, and public works in department buildings have all been approved.
The amount under which the university is currently pursuing various projects is estimated to be in excess of Rs 450 crore. “While the Non-disbursal of Rs 96 crore to continue projects sanctioned by several government agencies may be due to Covid-19, it threatens to hamper the majority of the projects.”
The government pays out grants in stages, and it hasn’t done so in the last year. We are concerned that further delays will increase costs,” said an official in know of the development.
Himanshu Pandya, the Vice-Chancellor, and Piyush Patel, the Registrar, did not respond to calls. Jagdish Bhavsar, the Pro-VC, stated he didn’t have all of the details of the proposal on hand.
“It was discussed during the meeting that the varsity may have to dig into its corpus funds to compensate for the grants’ unavailability.”
It will use the appropriate amount from the corpus and available finances to ensure a constant pace of the projects until the award is released,” said a meeting participant.
Aside from the building committee, GU’s finance committee and need committee met to discuss the need for additional institutions in semi-urban and rural locations, according to officials.