The Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy (IIPE), an institute under the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, will temporarily be housed in the engineering college of Andhra University here and it will commence classes from August, according to Sushma Rath, the Joint Secretary in the ministry.

She was here on Thursday to witness the signing of a MoU between the IIPE and the IIT, Kharagpur, which would be the mentor institute for the IIPE for the next three years. She said the IIPE was being established in Visakhapatnam district to fulfill a promise made in the AP Reorganisation Bill, 2014.

Sushma Rath said Visakhapatnam had been chosen for the institute as the HPCL refinery is located here and also it is a major city close to the Krishna-Godavari basin. She said the institute would undertake research in emerging fields such as shale gas in the oil and gas sector and it would provide the skilled personnel for the sector. There would be constant interaction between the IIPE and the oil companies.

The permanent campus for the IIPE would be at Sabbavaram in Visakhapatnam district on 200 acres of land provided by the State Government and roughly Rs 655 crore would be spent on setting up the institute.

V.S Shenoy on behalf of the IIPE and Prof. Sunando Das Gupta, on behalf of the IIT, Kharagpur, signed the MoU. Prof. V.S.R.K Prasad and district collector N. Yuvaraj also spoke.

sarma.rs@thehindu.on

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