Ponda: Stating that setting up the permanent IIT campus on the Bhootkhamb plateau at Keri in Ponda taluka would destroy the environment and would affect the natural water resources of the village, locals said govt should refrain from grabbing cultivable land.Villager Ramkrishna Jalmi said the villagers have fought three agitations in past to protect the land from being grabbed for commercial purposes. In the first agitation, the village protected the land from being taken over for mining. Then, in the early ’90s, villagers agitated against the proposed Nylon 6,6 project, and between 2007 and 2009, they agitated against special economic zones, Jalmi said.Keri Citizens’ Action Committee’s Swati Kerkar said Keri is a region rich in nature and that projects like IIT will create a concrete jungle and destroy natural resources.Jalmi said facilities have already been set up for the IIT in Farmagudi and a hostel has been built for seven hundred students even as he asked why govt is looking for land elsewhere. The Bhootkhamb plateau comprises at least 12.3 lakh sqm of land.In Sep 2025, following stiff opposition from villagers, the Codar site became the latest to be scrapped by Goa govt as a proposed area to set up a permanent campus for IIT Goa. The IIT has been operating from a temporary campus ever since its establishment in 2016, stifling its expansion.Some of the other sites that were identified for the project were at Loliem, Cotarlim, Rivona and Melaulim.
