Noida to make inter-college better and financially viable

The Noida authority on Tuesday said it has asked a consultant, Ernst & Young, to prepare a detailed plan to make Panchsheel Balak Inter College financially viable and self-sustaining.

Currently, the senior secondary school for boys has 900 students against a capacity of 2,000. Built at a cost of ₹192 crore, the school was established by then chief minister Mayawati in 2010 with an aim to provide secondary education at a reasonable fee.

The consultant has been told to prepare a financially viable project plan as the authority cannot spend money on maintenance and bear its running cost forever.

“The consultant will conduct a survey and prepare its report in a month or so. Once the report, the authority would ask the school management to follow the suggestions and make the school self sustainable,” Samakant Shrivastava, general manager, Noida authority, said.

The school is affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education and has facility for hostel for students enrolled in classes 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Students from classes 1 to 5 are day scholars.

According to an official estimate, the school management needs ₹5 crore annually to run the institution and is able to collect only around ₹3.5 crore as fee from students. The authority wants to bridge this gap with the help of the consultant’s suggestions.

“Our effort is to ensure that the school admits students to the full strength of 2,000 so that it earns enough and become self sustainable and stop depending on the authority,” Shrivastava said.

The authority will also spend ₹10 crore to construct an auditorium and a hostel mess in Panchsheel Balak Inter College, located in Sector 91, along Noida-Greater Noida Expressway.

“We will spend ₹5.85 crore on the auditorium and ₹4.15 crore on the mess house, meant for hostel students,” Shrivastava said.

The auditorium will have a seating capacity of 750 and the canteen will cater to students from classes 6 to 12.

The authority chief executive officer Alok Tandon, along with his team of officials, inspected the inter-college building spread across 25 acres.

Tandon is slated to inspect the authority’s senior secondary school for girls, Mahamaya Balika Inter College, in Sector 44, next Tuesday. The authority wants to make these two schools financially self sustainable.