JORHAT, Feb 22 - The Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu today inaugurated the Jorhat branch of National Institute of Design (NID) at Rajabari here via video-conferencing.
NID Jorhat is under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry and is spread over 30 acres of Tocklai Tea Estate, leased by the Tocklai Experimental Station from the Assam Tea Corporation Ltd nearly 38 years ago.
This Rs 64.33-crore mega project, first of its kind in the entire North-east, was launched by the Tarun Gogoi-led government with much hype by getting the foundation laid by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on February 19, 2011, just on the eve of the Assembly polls.
In his address on the occasion, Prabhu said that Jorhat had a rich heritage and culture and he believed that the creative talent and young design aspirants of the north-east would benefit from the opening of the NUD branch here.
A senior NID official said that the admission process to the four-year courses in textile and apparel design, communication design and industrial designs for the academic year 2019-20 has been initiated with intake of 20 students each in the three branches.
�After the NID (Amendment) Act is passed, then the institute will be able to award Bachelor degree certificates instead of the Graduate diploma certificates to be awarded now,� the official said.
It may be mentioned here that the National Design Policy had recommended the setting up of Design institutes in line with NID, Ahmedabad, following which four NID branches have been established in Amarawati in Andhra Pradesh, Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, Kurukshetra in Haryana and Jorhat.
