Competitive exam aspirants in the hills never had it so good.

Harsh Vardhan Shringla, a former foreign secretary with the rare honour of a road named after him in Bangladesh, will establish free coaching facilities in the Darjeeling hills for students aspiring to crack UPSC examinations.

The first such centre will be set up at Southfield College in Darjeeling and reserved exclusively for female candidates according to college guidelines. Southfield College (formerly Loreto College) is a girls’ college.

“This centre will serve as a pilot project leading to additional coaching facilities for both male and female candidates and will be established in Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts,” said a source.

The initiative is being undertaken under the aegis of the Darjeeling Welfare Society (DWS), which Shringla heads.

Courses will begin on June 22 and continue for 15 months.

“Those who qualify for the prelims will be eligible for free specialised coaching right up to the interview stage,” said a source.

DWS plans to hold special lectures by trained educators, successful candidates and young officers, apart from regular online and offline classes.

The decision comes close on the heels of four students from the region — Ritika Verma (AIR 25), Jayasree Pradhan (52), Gautam Thakuri (391) and Ajay Moktan (494) — cracking the UPSC civil service exam this year.

Apart from Shringla’s DWS, the family of politician Ajoy Edwards, who runs the Edwards Foundation, has also been holding free coaching camps for competitive examination aspirants for the past three years.

“We have started distributing the forms to the aspirants and will continue till June 25,” said Ajoy Edwards.

Candidates have to undergo a screening examination after which a selected batch of students will be provided with free coaching for a year by the foundation.

IT park site search

Officials of the Bengal government and the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) inspected three sites in Gorubathan block in Kalimpong district on Saturday to set up an IT park.

“The chief executive of the GTA (Anit Thapa) has plans to set up an IT park. Accordingly, we had communicated to the state government and today we came for a field survey to identify a suitable site,” said GTA executive director Topden Lama.