Dhaka: The amount of land required for setting up necessary buildings for Jagannath University will be provided at Keraniganj in Dhaka, said Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave directives on the issue in the cabinet meeting on Monday, said Nahid at the conference room of the Education Ministry.

A new 10-storey dormitory will be established on 25 bigha land purchased in Keraniganj earlier for the university. The hall will have the capacity for at least 1000 students. Besides this, other buildings necessary for the university wiil be set up on adjacent land, said the minister.

Earlier, after a meeting with Jagannath University Teachers’ Association at the Secretariat in Dhaka on Sunday, the education minister said Jagannath University’s new residential halls for students will be built at Banglabazar and Keraniganj in Dhaka.

The decision came following Jagannath University students’ protest for last one month for new halls on the former Dhaka central jail land.

The minister said the new dormitories would not be built on the former prison land which was vacated by shifting of the prison from the Old Town of Dhaka to Keraniganj.

He also added that the Jagannath University do not have adequate land that it should possess. He said, ‘The university doesn’t have necessary land for setting up academic building, administrative building, student hall, Teachers’ houses, Laboratory and Library buildings. We are trying to manage a piece of land at Purbachal or Jhilmil land projects of Rajdhani Unnayan Katripakkha (Rajuk) to shift the whole university. There is a fund of Tk 276 crore for this purpose.’