Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Wednesday laid the foundation stone of a Rs 5,000-crore private university in Ranchi.

The Azim Premji University will be built on a 146-acre plot in Ranchi's Itki block, around 25 km away from the capital city.

Interacting with Premji, the founder chairman of Wipro, who joined the programme virtually, Soren invited him to visit Jharkhand.

Premji thanked the chief minister for the support of the state government for the project and said that this will be one of the biggest universities in the country.

The CM said, "Currently, the biggest university campus of the foundation is in Bengaluru, which is spread on 110 acre. Ranchi's campus will be bigger than that as we have provided 146 acres of land for the project."

Soren said that Rs 5,000 crore would be invested in the project in phases, and it would start functioning in 2026.

The university will also have a medical college, a 500-bed hospital and other health-related institutions, besides a school that will come up on four acre.

"The school will enroll students from nearby villages, and will provide free education up to class 12. Other support, such as mid-day meals, regular health check-ups, uniforms, textbooks, and notebooks will also be provided by the schools. The library and sports facilities can also be used by children from nearby communities," an official of the Azim Premji Foundation said.

The chief minister said that the proposal for the project came to him in 2021.

"They were looking for a suitable location to set up the university in the eastern region of the country. I found it an opportunity and offered them land in Ranchi's Itki area," he said.

Soren said that Jharkhand is known for its mines and minerals, but it did not help much in the development of its people.

"The industrialists and mining companies became rich but the people of the state remained poor. So, when we came to power, we focused on other fields, especially on education. We have developed 80 schools of excellence and 500 more such schools will be developed in coming days where education will be imparted to the students at par with the private institutions," he said.