PESHAWAR, Sept 24: The NWFP University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Peshawar, would soon start work on a seven-year project of establishing a new campus in Jalozai with a cost of Rs6.56 billion, said NWFP University of Engineering and Technology Vice Chancellor Imtiaz Hussain Gilani here on Monday.

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) is the sponsoring agency of the project and it has allocated Rs30 million in the PSDP 2007-08 for the project. At least 200 faculty members of the campus would be sent abroad with foreign assistance to obtain PhD degrees, Mr Gilani told a press briefing.“The project aims at developing the new Jalozai campus by establishing eight departments at undergraduate level and post-graduate programmes in some disciplines.

The Jalozai campus would help upgrade the UET by expanding its capacity, improving the quality of education and increasing relevance to national needs,” Mr Gilani said.The project was recently approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) meeting where prime minister Shaukat Aziz assured full support of the federal government to educational projects of the Frontier province, Mr Gilani said. The VC said that initially

financial problems and in later years non-availability of land were the main hurdles in the establishment of the new campus.

The campus would be established at 350 acres of land equipped with all state-of-the-art facilities of a world class university and later linkages would be developed with foreign educational institutions, Mr Gilani said.

He said the University of Engineering and Technology had ambitious plans to set up another top university with the financial assistance of the HEC on 1400 kanals of land near Mamo Khatki but foreign investors were reluctant to come and be part of the project due to security situation in the NWFP.

He said the UET had proposed some changes in the model of the programme and instead of inviting foreign faculty members from South Korea and Italy and other countries, local faculty members would be sent abroad for training.

The VC said the University of Engineering and Technology had launched some of its own and HEC-funded projects worth Rs2.26 billion in various parts of the province and the UET had sent 70 PhDs abroad for training.