The ball will be set rolling for Punjab's own Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) on February 24 when Union Minister of Human Resource Development Arjun Singh and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will jointly lay the foundation stone of the prestigious project in Ropar at 10.30 am.

Confirming the IIT programme, Ropar Deputy Commissioner B Purushartha told Newsline that the IIT's plaque will be unveiled on the 513-acre site at Birla Seed Farm.

Punjab IIT has already started functioning from this academic year with 120 students, divided in three streams, already admitted to its first batch functioning from the transit campus at IIT Delhi from July 28.

The premier national institute will shift to the Government Polytechnic Institute campus in Ropar from the next session and will continue functioning from there till its permanent campus comes up at the Birla Seed Farm.

To accommodate the IIT campus, new admissions to the Ropar Polytechnic have been suspended from this year and the remaining batch of its 150 students will be given an option to shift to any other Polytechnic of their choice in the state from the next session, said Principal Secretary, Technical Education and Industrial Training, Punjab, Tejinder Kaur.

The Indian Institute of Nano Science and Technology (IINST) and National Agro Biotechnology Institute (NABI) in Mohali will, however, have to wait a little longer as Mohali is not on the Union Minister's itinerary.

The work on these projects has been on hold ever since September when Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's visit to kick-start work on the IINST and the NABI in Mohali and IIT in Ropar was postponed.