Campus upgradation, new AI centre: Kumar Mangalam Birla announces Rs 2,200-crore BITS Pilani expansion plans

According to the plan, the group will fund a new AI campus in Andhra Pradesh’s Amaravati

Aditya Kumar Birla chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla on July 13 announced major expansion plans worth Rs 2,200 crore for BITS Pilani to boost capacity, launch new AI centres and an edtech platform.

According to the plan, the group will fund a new AI campus in Andhra Pradesh’s Amaravati, upgrade the infrastructure at the existing campuses and launch a new edtech platform BITS Pilani Digital, said Birla, who is also the chancellor of the technology institution, CNBC-TV18 reported.

Under its plans to upgrade campuses, the group has launched Rs 1,200-crore “Project Vistaar” initiate to fund the modernization and expansion of campuses in Pilani, Hyderabad and Goa, the channel reported.

The plan will see the student capacity jump to 26,000 in the next 5 years from the current 18,700 and will also add new research blocks, hostels and faculty housing.

In addition, the group will invest over Rs 1,000 crore in setting up an AI campus in Amaravati, the report said. Birla said the campus will be “future-ready” with specialisations in data science, robotics, computational linguistics and cyber-physical systems, the channel reported.

The new campus will also offer UG, PG and PhD courses to over 7,000 students