"Establishment of the IITs, IIMs and central universities in the above states is subject to state governments offering adequate land at suitable locations, free of cost, for the purpose," Arjun Singh said. To a question as why they are setting up the universities in already developed areas, the minister said, "It has been considered necessary that these are located in or near selected large cities which would automatically have the kind of connectivity and infrastructure which such universities would need."

The Ministry still has to announce the locations of new National Institutes of Technology (NITs) to be set up in the Plan period.

"While Bihar and Andhra IITs would start functioning from their specific locations from the coming academic year, the Rajasthan IIT for the time being would operate from IIT Delhi. But Himachal Pradesh IIT may take some time," R P Agarwal, secretary, higher education said. It is also proposed to convert the Institute of Technology of the Banaras Hindu University into an IIT. Admission to this institute is already based on the IIT-Joint Entrance Examination.

According to officials, each of the new IIT would require about Rs 760 crore to make it fully functional, while an IIM would need Rs 250 crore. For a central university, the requirement is Rs 250 to Rs 300 crore (including recurring and non recurring costs over a period of four to five years). While intake of the new IITs would be around 2,500 students, it would be 120 students per year in IIMs, they said.

However, the allocations proposed for the new institutions are not big to start with. Agarwal said that while the three new IITs coming up from the next academic year are provided a sum of Rs 50 crore in the 2008-09 budget, it is a paltry Rs 10 crore for IIMs, Rs 50 crore for central universities and Rs 60 crore for the world class universities. "We know it is nothing but all these institutions would take time to come up. These amounts would at least start the process," Agarwal said. The 11th Plan allocations for these institutions is expected to be Rs 2,000 crore for IITs, Rs 660 crore for IIMs, Rs 2,000 crore for central universities and Rs 2,800 crore for the world class universities, he said.