Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 27 (IANS): The Kerala cabinet Wednesday approved the setting up of an academic city in the state similar to the Dubai Academic City, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy announced here.

"We had set up a committee of experts to look into this proposal and after visiting the Dubai Academic City they are convinced that a similar one can be set up in the state," Chandy told reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting.

"A few places for the proposed project have also been identified," he added.

At the Dubai Academic City, there are 43,000 students from 137 countries studying in more than 400 different educational programmes.

The committee that has been asked to work on this project has already zeroed down on three locations and has proposed to set up a company for this, where the state government will have a 26 percent stake.

The company will be set up under the public-private participation model.

"A team of highly qualified experts from the various fields of education would be drawn and a chairman of outstanding repute would be appointed to take forward this project," said Chandy.

It was also decided to conduct road shows to popularise the academic city.