World Bank selects NIIT as Lead Inst under TEQIP

Tiruchirapalli, Dec 20: The National Institute of Technology,Tiruchirapalli (NITT), the premier engineering institute in the countryhas been selected as a 'Lead Institution' under the Technical EducationQuality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) by the World Bank, according toInsitute Director Dr M Chidambaram.

The World Bank has approved a lifetime allocation of Rs 209million for the NITT project. The first phase of the five-year projectwould be completed by March 2008, he told newspersons last night.

Academic excellence, networking and service to community andeconomy were the three major components of the TEQIP project, he said.A wide range of equipment has been procured for various departments tostrengthen the existing laboratories as well as to set up newlaboratories.

Some major procurement like personal computers for Rs 10.873million and scanning electron microscope for Rs 4.179 million have beenmade. Orders were placed for campus-wide networking, which will becarried out at a cost of Rs 13.4 million and the sophisticated ND-YAGrpt ND-YAG Laser Source would be obtained for Rs 2.6 million, heinformed.

The collection of books in the existing library has beenstrengthened by procuring latest books and learning resources worth Rs18 million. The faculty members and staff were sent for training invarious places in the country and abroad.

He said the NITT Departments will be developed as 'Autonomous' andflexible 'Centers of Excellence' to meet the sweeping changes of theindustrial environment in post-liberalized India and also the rapidlychanging scenario in Technical Education globally.

According to Dr Chidamabaram, the Union Government was planning toincrease the intake of students to an extent of 54 per cent more from2007-2008, in which the total students strength of NITT will be 6,000in the year 2010 from the existing strength of 3,600.

Similarly, the Faculty strength will also increase to 300 from theexisting 200 and the Support Staff strength would go up by 450 from thepresent strength of 250.

The infrastructure pertaining to hostels, mega mess, hospital,auditorium, instructional buildings, school for the faculty wards,laboratory equipment and students amenities will be completed in thenext two years, he added.

UNI