Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurates new campus of Odia University

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the new campus of the Odia University at Satyabadi in Puri district on Wednesday. The campus, built at a cost of Rs 30 crore over 9.60 acre near the famous Bana Vidyalaya, will be a centre of excellence for research and development in Odia language, officials said.

The campus has a School of Learning with a capacity of 200 students, a hostel each for male and female students with a capacity of 64, a hostel for 16 scholars, a library, a cafeteria and an administration block. The university offers courses in Odia Language and Literature, Linguistics and Natural Language Processing, and Regional, Tribal Language and Heritage Studies. Patnaik had laid the foundation stone for the campus in October 2018.

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Eminent educationist Sabita Pradhan was appointed the first vice-chancellor of the varsity in August last year. Inaugurating the campus, the chief minister said that language is the identity of a race. "When the use of language increases, it enriches and increases the glory of the nation," he said Patnaik also claimed that the present time was the "golden period of Odias", during which the heritage corridor project at the Jagannath temple in Puri was developed.

"Today, the campus of Odia University was inaugurated. The first World Odia Language Summit is going to be held soon," he said. Patnaik described Satyabadi as the seat of Odia renaissance. He said Satyabadi was the 'karma bhoomi' of Utkamani Pandit Gopabandhu Dash.