New Delhi: The Prime Minister's Office, according to sources, is rethinking their earlier decision for letting 14 renowned innovation universities to be set up in places that were selected during former Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Arjun Singh's tenure.

The decision was put on hold because first selecting the sites and then building the universities would not work as the concept of these institutions is different than a usual university.

There has also been a severe change in the concept of innovation universities since the tenure of Singh. The MHRD has suggested that even private educational institutes should be allowed to set up universities, apart from government ones.

An official said that the sites for the varsities that had been selected earlier during Singh's tenure would not be apt now as innovation universities should only be set up in places where there is a scope for students as well as a world class faculty to exist.

However, the problem may arise as many states have already decided the sites for these universities and the Centre's change on their stand about the issue would not go down too well with them. Some states have even decided on sites that are not the ones recommended by the HRD ministry.

Some states that have already finalized the sites for the universities include, Andhra Pradesh, Visakhapatnam, Orissa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.

In Andhra Pradesh, Visakhapatnam was selected for setting up an innovation university. The state government has even shortlisted four sites in Visakhapatnam district. Orissa has also suggested 700 acres of land near Bhubaneswar.

Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have selected sites in Sabarkantha and Sehore, respectively. But since these two places were not shortlisted by the HRD ministry, Gujarat has been asked to finalize a site near Ahmedabad or Gandhinagar and MP in an area near Bhopal.

Punjab has shortlisted four sites in Amritsar while Tamil Nadu has shortlisted three sites in Coimbatore. Both these places were suggested by HRD ministry.