New Heights for Journalism in Kottayam

IIMC regional centre at MG University in Kottayam.

KOTTAYAM: Nearly after two decades Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) is set to expand its wings after it is allotted ten acres of land hear in Pampady.

“The Central Government has sent a conformation letter to the State Government of Kerala for the proposed plan of expanding the campus and the authorities are in process of acquiring the land. It will be started very soon as Center has already allotted Rs. 25 crores towards the project,” said Shri Ramakrishanan, Special Officer at the regional center of IIMC, Kottayam on the telephone.

The new campus will be the third of its kind in India after Delhi and Dhenkanal (Odisha). In 1995 IIMC proposed to set up a new campus here, but for the problem of adequate land, the project was postponed for an indefinite period. In 2011, IIMC started a regional center at the Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam. Now it has other regional centers at Amravati(Maharstra), Aizawl (Mizoram) and Jammu (J&K).

Mr Ramakrishanan said that we hope of completing the project in the current five year plan (2012-17). With the campus we are going to start the Malayalam Journalism course along with Radio and TV journalism and Advertising and Public Relation courses. It will be the second center to have such a variety of courses after New Delhi.

Right now the strength of the institute is 11 students comes from various parts of the country. “With the new campus the students will be benefited as IIMC will introduce different courses,” said Mr Deepu Joy, faculty at IIMC, Kottayam.