RIYADH, 11 June — Muhammad Shahabuddin, a senior Indian parliamentarian, concluded his visit to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states this week with a call to aid organizations in the region to support a massive educational project in his home province.
Shahabuddin, who was in Saudi Arabia to discuss the SR200 million project in the north Indian state of Bihar, with the Indian expatriates here, said he was awaiting permission from the Indian government to receive foreign aid for the project, to be set up in the city of Siwan. Shahabuddin represents the Siwan constituency in the Indian Parliament.
He said he was currently compiling a bilingual project report and would approach the Islamic Development Bank, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, the Haramain Foundation, the Muslim World League and other aid organizations for financial support. He said the construction of the first phase of the project had already started.
The Islamia Educational and Social Welfare Trust has been registered with the Indian government to promote this project. It has already acquired a 100-acre property for the Islamia Educational Campus project and has plans to acquire another 100 acres. “No other Indian university has such a huge campus,” said Shahabuddin, who is the president of the trust.
The integrated campus will accommodate thousands of students. “Except for the provincial capital of Patna, there are no integrated educational campuses of a similar nature in Bihar. This project will fulfill a long-felt need,” he said.
Education and health projects are vital to improve the general quality of life in India, he said, adding that his project is designed to provide the highest standards of health care, education and training, especially for women. The parliamentarian said the 10-member trust had finalized plans to build a world-class medical college, an engineering college, a management school, a dental college, a Unani medical college, and housing and administrative facilities within the campus.
He said a minimum 40 percent of students in the professional colleges being set up as part of the project would be Muslim. The trust has already been able to get clearance from the state government to admit students for the first year engineering course. “In all probability, we will start the course from the next academic year.”
He said he would visit different countries to raise funds for the project. He indicated that he was very hopeful of substantial support from the aid organizations in the Gulf states as well as the Indian expatriates.
