Cabinet approves setting up of eight new IITs

New Delhi, July 17 : The Union Cabinet today approved the setting up of eight new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Indore.

All these institutes will be set up at a total cost of Rs.6080 crore (@ Rs.760 crore per IIT) over a six years period, and consequently, approval will be given for the forming of societies for creating legal entities for the new IITs.

Academic sessions will commence from July 23.

The IITs of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat will commence their classes for about 120 students each for B.Tech programmes through temporary campuses located near the place where the IIT campus is likely to be built.

These three IITs of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat will be mentored by the IITs of Madras, Guwahati and Bombay, respectively.

The three IITs of Rajasthan, Punjab and Orissa will commence their classes in the campuses of their mentor IITs at IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi and IIT Kharagpur, respectively.

The Cabinet has also approved the creation of 30 faculty posts per year in the first three years of establishment of each of the new IITs. It has also specifically approved the post of a Director in each of the new IITs in the grade of Rs. 26,000 (fixed) and a post of Registrar in the grade of Rs. 16,400-22,400 for each of the new IITs.

The Cabinet has also decided to raise the grade of all existing IIT Directors from Rs. 25,000 (fixed) to Rs. 26,000 (fixed).

The balance of two IITs in Indore and the IIT in Himachal Pradesh are likely to commence their sessions from the next academic year of 2009-10. ll the State Governments have identified about 600 acres of land for the location of the new IITs.

In case of Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, the Government has accepted the site recommended by the State Government and in the rest of the cases, the Site Selection Committee will inspect the offered sites in due course and will give its recommendations to the Ministry.

With a view to ensure good effective coordination as well as maintenance of excellence in the new IITs also, pending selection of regular Directors for the IITs, it has been decided that the Directors of the mentor IITs will work as Directors of the mentored IIT and the Chairman of the Board of Governors (BoG) of the mentor IIT will also be the Chairman of the BoG of the mentored IIT.

With the creation of new IITs, high quality technical education will become accessible to more bright students as now hardly two per cent of about three lakhs students who appear in the Joint Entrance Exam of IITs can get admission in them.

The new IITs will also facilitate the increased output of high quality Engineering and Science graduates, postgraduates and Ph.D.s; Teachers for Engineering and Science subjects at College or University level and R and D and Intellectual Property generation in Engineering and Science.

The cabinet also approved in principle approval for taking over the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University - a constituent unit of the Banaras Hindu University, a Central University, its conversion into an IIT and integrating it with the IIT system in the country.

It would also address state or region specific technology related problems of States or Union Territories situated in the IITs' zones.

ANI