The Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Visakhapatnam, will be inaugurated on September 21 and the classes will begin from September 28, according to G Srinivasa Rao, the State HRD Minister.

He said the IIM-Vizag would be mentored by IIM-Bangalore and it will function temporarily in the Andhra Bank Business School on the Andhra University campus. It will have its permanent campus on the 300-acre site allocated at Gambheeram village on the outskirts of the city. He said the 60 seats in the IIM-Vizag had been filled and all efforts will be made to mould it into one of the premier institutes in the country.

He said the Union Government had allocated a number of prestigious institutes till now to Andhra Pradesh, as promised, and later, the Central University will also be announced.

Srinivasa Rao said efforts were on to get Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani to inaugurate the IIM-Vizag, but “it would depend on the Union Minister’s schedule.”

Sourav Mukherjee, Dean of IIM-Bangalore, said it will take six months to one year to appoint a director for the IIM here and the Board of Directors would have to be constituted first and then, the recruitment process will begin. He said the IIM-Vizag may require three years of mentoring or so.

sarma.rs@thehindu.co.in