The Gujarat government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) withReliance Industries Limited for the project on Wednesday.

According to state government sources, RIL would bear the entire cost ofsetting up the IIIT estimated to be Rs 50 to 75 crore and would have totaladministrative control of the project as well. A time limit of 18 months hasbeen set for the ambitious project. The state government would allot around50 to 75 acres of land for setting up the institute on the outskirts ofGandhinagar, adjacent to its ambitious infocity project. Government sourcesare optimistic that this IIIT would be unique since it would not only imparttraining in ultra modern evolving technology both in software and hardwarebut would also provide enough opportunity for research and developmentactivity in the IT sector.

The institute is also expected to introduce management and entrepreneurshipdevelopment programmes "making it comparable to world-renowned institutes."It may be mentioned that Reliance's IIIT would not be the firstindustry-sponsored IT institute in the country since states like AndhraPradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal already have similar institutes.

The Union government has also recently established IIITs in Allahabad andGwalior. It may also be mentioned that apart from its basic services projectand the IIIT project in Gujarat, Reliance Telecom is also in the process ofsetting up 5,000 IT kiosks across the state along with WorldTel. The companyhas also taken up a project for setting up kiosks in Tamil Nadu.

In addition, the company has also offered the state a large bandwidth inreturn of subsidised right of way for its optic fibre network. However,sources are not too optimistic that the state government would accede to thecompany's request given the fact that it has already made its position clearon the issue time and again.