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Aga Khan lays foundation stone for school in Andhra Pradesh

HYDERABAD, India, Sept 22, 2006 (UNI)

The Aga Khan, billionaire spiritual leader of the world’s 15 million Shia Ismaili Muslims, laid the foundation stone Friday for a 50-million-dollar educational centre in southern India.

‘‘The Aga Khan Academy ... will be dedicated to preparing talented young people for leadership roles in India and worldwide,’’ the Aga Khan Foundation said in a statement.

‘‘The academy will enroll 750 students (from primary to high school) with a capacity to expand to 1,200 students,’’ the statement said.

The school, due to begin academic lessons in 2009, will be built on 100 acres (40 hectares) of land donated by the government of southern Andhra Pradesh state in the capital Hyderabad.

The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) and its partners ‘‘will invest tens of millions of dollars in the construction and operation of the academy,’’ the statement added.

The Aga Khan arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday and during his stay in the Indian capital held talks with India’s president Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and chief of the Congress party Sonia Gandhi, a government spokesman said.

He was due to wrap up his visit later this week.

In India, the Agha Khan’s development works has spanned span a broad spectrum -- health, rural development, education, environment and cultural programmes -- since the early 1980s.

The Aga Khan last visited India in November 2004 to hand out his development agency’s triennial architectural awards.