Amit Shah lays foundation for NE's first National Forensic Sciences University

Agartala, March 8 (IANS) Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday laid the foundation for the Tripura campus of Gujarat-based National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU), which will be the first such institute in the northeast.

Laying the foundation stone for the permanent campus on a 50-acre land at Srinagar in western Tripura's Anandanagar, Shah said that the institute would be of great benefit to the entire northeastern region to deal with diverse crimes.

Under the NFSU with its headquarters at Gandhinagar in Gujarat, the transit campus of the NFSU was established in Tripura in November last year on the B.Ed College campus here.

There are two other campuses of the university functioning in New Delhi and Goa.

An official of the varsity said that the NFSU under the Home Ministry is the world's first dedicated university for forensic science and its allied subjects.

The Tripura campus would start four courses -- B.Sc Forensic Science, M.Sc Forensic Science, M.Sc Cyber Security and M.Sc Digital Forensics and Information Security -- with an intake capacity of 50 each.

Unique programmes like drone forensic, DNA fingerprinting, wildlife forensic, fraud investigation, cyber crime and digital forensic, narcotics analysis, criminology, forensic food investigation, and homeland security related undergraduate and postgraduate programmes would also be introduced on the NFSU's Tripura campus.

The university is planning to invest around Rs 100 crore in the first phase with a total investment of Rs 250 crore to Rs 300 crore in the next five years, the official said.

The varsity would also provide job opportunities to the local people with 300 to 500 persons getting direct employment and 1,500 persons getting indirect employment.

In the next 4 to 5 years, more than 30 to 40 undergraduate and postgraduate courses related to forensic science and allied branches, including PhD courses, will be conducted here.

On the Tripura campus of the NFSU, a total of 3,000 to 4,000 students would be able to study after 4-5 years and 60 per cent are expected to be girls and 200-300 foreign students are also expected each year.

The official said that the NFSU would also provide training to police officers, judges, security officials, bankers and other government officials.