NAGPUR: In a positive step for the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) at Nagpur, a team from the ministry for human resources development (MHRD) made site inspections for the proposed institute on Wednesday and gave a positive feedback, indicating that the premier institution may commence operations from July.

“The permanent as well as makeshift facilities provided by the Maharashtra government are excellent and we are grateful to them. We will file our report to the MHRD within a week and its endorsement is expected by another week. We’re expecting a positive decision by February-end,” MHRD additional secretary Amarjit Sinha, who headed the panel, told TOI.

IIM-Ahmedabad director Ashish Nanda, chief engineer of Central Public Works Department (CPWD) in city Narendra Kumar, and principal secretary for higher and technical education Sanjay Chahande were other members of the team. They were accompanied by divisional commissioner Anoop Kumar, collector Abhishek Krishna and joint director for technical education in Nagpur Gulab Thakre.

After inspecting makeshift facilities at Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) in the morning, the team visited the permanent campus site at Mouza Dahegaon in non-SEZ area under Mihan that spread over 293 acres.

Sinha added IIM-Ahmedabad director Nanda also seemed to be satisfied with the facilities. “After getting formal approval from MHRD, the team from mentor institute (IIM-A) would guide the Nagpur officials on further set up,” he said.

Endorsing him, Thakre said the visitors were impressed with both the sites. “They liked the buildings at VNIT, but expressed concern over the size of classrooms, as they wanted bigger ones. But the VNIT administration assured them that it would take care of this aspect. VNIT officials also expressed willingness to make modifications in the buildings as per requirements,” he said.

The MHRD team also interacted with chairman of VNIT Board of Governors Vishram Jamdar and director Narendra Chaudhari during their visit to VNIT. “We told them that we’re ready to start the prestigious institution from the forthcoming session and we’re ready for any kind of help,” Jamdar told TOI.

After inspection of the permanent site, the MHRD team had a meeting with Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation (MADC) officials at incubation centres. “MADC project manager SV Chahande explained them about entire project and companies coming up there. They liked the Mihan site which has a lake in front of it. The MHRD’s approval is expected in a couple of weeks after which IIM-A would appoint a nodal officer for coordination and future formalities. The appointment process for faculties and other directors would begin probably by March-end,” Thakre said.