Tamil Nadu's Noorul Islam University to launch satellite

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Tamil Nadu's Noorul Islam University (NIU) will soon be rigging up its own satellite and launching it too with government help, a university official said Friday. The Rs.100-crore satellite will be used for agricultural applications and also facilitate higher education.
The central government has given its go-ahead to the university to fabricate the satellite, which is planned to be launched in 2013, Noorul Islam University (NIU) pro-chancellor Faizal Khan told IANS.

The official announcement about the university's satellite launch plans would be made by central government officials at the NIU campus, 25 km from the Kerala border into Tamil Nadu, Jan 25, Faizal Khan said.

"We will make the satellite on our campus and get it ready for launch in 2013. The satellite will be used in the fields of agriculture and higher education," he said.

The satellite fabrication, he added, would be done under the watchful guidance of 18 former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) employees who now work at the Noorul Islam College of Engineering.

"The approximate cost of the satellite would be close to Rs.100 crore. We will bring in Rs.15 crore, while the centre will chip in with the rest. This is certainly a huge achievement for our hard work and it is going to be a morale booster for all our students," Faizal Khan added.

NIU was established in 1989. It started off with just 40 students and now has an annual intake of 3,500 students. It has a state-of-the-art super speciality hospital and also runs a dental college.