On July 18, 2017, a Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha to set up a permanent campus for the IIPE or Indian Institute of Petroleum Engineering (IIPE) in Andhra Pradesh under the AP Reorganization Act, 2014. Currently, IIPE is operating from a temporary campus at Andhra University. IIPE Visakhapatnam offers B.Tech in Chemical Engineering and B.Tech in Petroleum Engineering courses. With the introduction of a Bill in Lok Sabha, IIPE Vizag will be granted the status of an Institute of National Importance at par with the IITs.
Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Indian Institute of Petroleum Engineering Bill in the Lok Sabha. The curriculum of the institute will be a specialised one and the institute will offer advanced programmes at the doctoral and postgraduate level.
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The state government of Andhra Pradesh has already allocated 150 acres of land at Anthakapalle, a nearby village in Vizag. The AP government provided the land free of cost in order to set up the permanent campus of IIPE. Further, Mr. Dharmendra Prasad also laid the foundation stone for the permanent campus on October 20, 2016.
The establishment of IIPE in Andhra Pradesh requires a total capital expenditure of Rs. 655.46 crore as well as an endowment fund of Rs. 400 crore. The centre will make the budgetary allocation. IIPE Vizag commenced its academic session in 2016 and admitted the first batch for the academic session 2016-17.
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IIPE Vizag is keen to have a governance structure and legal mandate to grant degrees that are similar to Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). The institute will have a separate Board of Governors (BoGs) along with a General Council.