Altaf Hamid Rao,
MIRPUR (AJK): Delegates representing various segments of the civil society including legal fraternity, business community, serving and retired government officials, seasoned academics, Senior Journalists, social and political activists besides others attended a detailed briefing besides visiting the site of the under construction mega over Rs. One billion mega project of the state of the art New campus of the state-run Mirpur University of Science & Technology (MUST), Mirpur, AJK over a huge piece of 5000 kanal of land at Khaliqabad in outskirt of this city of over a million of UK-based overseas kashmiris.
Prof. Dr. Habib ur Rehman, (Sitara e Imtiaz), Vice Chancellor of the MUST, only world-class public-sector univarsity of science & technology in AJK, while briefing the participants of the salient features of the academic and co-curricular activities of the state-of-the-art varsity since its inception in 2009, said that MUST was providing quality higher education to 6,760 students hailing from various parts of Pakistan, Gilgit Bultistan and Azad Jammu & Kasmir in a total of two dozens of disciplines in science and technology, social science, arts and others.
He updated the audience about the research activities being conducted by the faculty members and scholars under the faculties of Engineering, Sciences and Arts. He further added that we are committed to bring MUST not among the best universities of AJK but also Pakistan, however it wouldn’t not be possible without the cooperation of the civil society.
The Vice Chancellor invited all segments of the civil society to extend their ownership to the varsity for the continual improvement of already available high education standard in the varsity. At present, the university lies in W-Category with scoring 88.40 in HEC Ranking.
Registrar MUST Engr. Prof. Muhammad Waris Jiraal and Director Planning & Development of the Varsity Engr. Prof. Muhammad Iqbal also apprised the audience of the ongoing and upcoming development plans for the uplift of the varsity under phased programs.
In his detailed briefing, Project Director, Syed Zishan Ashiq, briefed the participants about the chronology of the project and updated about the present status. The project with total PC-I Cost Rs. 1890.024 Million was approved by CDWP and ECNEC in 2011. Initially the project was launched through PWD, AJK as a single entity. The Civil Works of the project were awarded to a private-sector construction firm on pre-qualification basis at a cost of Rs. 1573.131 million which were 52 % above the PC-I cost which was violation of rules. The Varsity conducted inquiry and two of the university officials and two PWD Officials were penalized.
The scope of the Civil Works was revised and Contract Agreement was re-signed with Engineering. However, the progress was dead slow and Contract of the above private-sector construction company was terminated in accordance with the Conditions of Contracts.
The project was re-launched in 2016 by dividing it in to four components and on post qualifications basis. These components comprise buildings (administration, academic, common facilities and residences) with total covered area 288,368 square feet, 5.35 kms road network 5.35, boundary wall (8.17 km), overhead water tank with capacity of 50,000 gallons, main gate and sewerage system. Three components of the project have been awarded to M/s 7-Star Co. and one to M/s MechTech Islamabad on competitive bidding basis.
The project director further apprised the participants that all the Civil Works will be completed by the 31 December, 2019. He also briefed the participants about the Master Planning including construction of water body, provision of Botanical Garden, Play Grounds, Medical Center, Jammiah Mosque and Public School. These have been included in the Phase-II of the project.
The participants were also updated about the Human Resource Development through 50 Ph.D and MS Scholarships , Laboratory Equipment of worth Rs. 173.668 million purchased to develop the academic and research facilities in the varsity.
The project director further apprised the participants of the newly arrived external grant of Rs. 100 millions to develop Advance Geotechnical Laboratory at New Campus. This research center sponsor by the HEC will be dedicated to carry out research in the fields of Land Sliding. Earthquakes and Floods (three major disasters of AJK). In addition to that, they were updated about the research grants won by the varsity’s scholars under NRPU Program of the HEC worthing Rs. 73.566 millions.
The participants appreciated all out sincere efforts of the Vice Chancellor and his team being made for the cause of national development. They furnished valuable comments, suggestions and opinions to make the things even better. The Additional Commissioner Mirpur, President, Bank of AJK, Members of Mirpur Chamber of Commerce, senior journalists and other participant assured the Vice Chancellor for their cooperation for the development of the University.
It may be mentioned here that the grand MUST varsity is engaged in the delivery of quality higher education in line with the needs of the modern age and the world standard in 24 of the disciplines of engineering and technology, arts and sciences including Departments of Civil Engineering, Computer Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Software Engineering, Mirpur Institute of Technology (Civil and Electrical Technology) in Engineering and technology, MUST Business School, department of Education, Law(MUST main campus and Pallandri Campus), Economics (Bhimber Campus, English (Bhimber Campus, Home Economics, International Relations, Sociology, Institute of Islamic Studies and deartment of Tourism and Hospitality (at Pallandri Campus) in the faculty of arts, and departments of Biotechnology, Botany (Bhimber Campus), Chemistry, Computer Science and Information Technology (CS&IT), Mathematics, Physics, Zoology and the department of Forestry and Natural Resources (Pallandri Campus) in faculty of sciences.
