Centre introduces challenge method for allotting Central institutions

Hyderabad: State governments are always keen to get Central institutions like IITs, IIMs, medical colleges, IT parks and others, but the way has just got tougher.

The Centre has introduced the “challenge method” and states will now have to participate in the “bidding” and compete to get the institutions. The Centre will allot these institutes based on marks scored.

The NITI Aayog has sent guidelines for selection of sites and locations for projects and institutions through the challenge method. NITI Aayog plans to conduct a meeting on April 17 in New Delhi with officials of all state governments to explain the new method.

As per existing practice, the formulation of schemes, land selection and acquisition, and others are done after the announcement. Such projects often face risks such as non-availability of suitable land, delay in land acquisition, delay in clearances, political opposition, lack of infrastructure and others.

The result is delay in implementation along with cost and time overruns, leading to sub-optional utilisation of scarce resources.

The Centre believes the challenge method of site selection, based on competition between states, will lead to the selection of the most suitable site. The challenge method can be applied to greenfield as well as brownfield projects, and can be adopted in sectors like higher education, health, information technology, energy and civil aviation sectors. This method can also be adopted for the rail and road sectors.

The Challenge for States

• Groups of states will be formed based on economic and social development, size, region and other criteria and the challenge will be among them.
• Union Ministries will call for proposals and states will be eligible to participate in the challenge after giving their commitment on providing land and supporting utilities.
• There are three stages for selection. The proposals will be evaluated by a selection committee on the basis of the parameters. The indicative parameters will have 90 points while 10 points have not been allocated so as to provide flexibility to ministries and the selection committee.