Mumbai: Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs) across the country have been rechristened National Institutes of Technology (NITs) after all the 17 institutions were made fully funded institutes of the central government.

The government had also taken over three new institutes, namely Bihar Engineering College, Patna, Government Engineering College, Raipur and Tripura Engineering College, Agartala and converted them into National Institutes of Technology (NITs) in 2004, 2005 and 2006 respectively, taking the total number of NITs to 20 by the year 2006.

These institutes are expected to be at par with other national level technical institutes like IITs, IISc etc and be able to fulfill the demand of high quality undergraduate and postgraduate level of education in engineering and technology.

The HRD ministry expects to receive some more proposals for establishments/ upgradation of NITs.

The NITs offer undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in various branches of engineering and technology. These institutes have also decided to introduce Ph.D. programmes also.

The government plans to fill up vacant position of about 800 teaching
faculty and most of them are in the process of recruitment.

Student intake has also increased from about 7,500 students to around 10,500 in all courses/disciplines.

A board of governors (BOG), responsible for the general superintendence, direction and control of the institute has been constituted in all NITs.

Quality improvement programmes (QIPs) for faculties will be undertaken by the institutes through upgradation of knowledge by visiting institutes within the country and abroad.

Upgradation of infrastructure like construction of hostels classrooms, libraries, laboratories, computer centre and has also been taken up by these institutes on a major scale.

National Institutes of Technology Act, 2007 becomes operational on 15 August 2007.

The LIST OF NITs include: Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad; National Institute of Technology, Patna; Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal; National Institute of Technology, Raipur; National Institute of Technology, Calicut; National Institute of Technology, Rourkela; National Institute of Technology, Durgapur; National Institute of Technology, Silchar; National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur; National Institute of Technology, Srinagar; Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur; Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat; Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar; National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal; National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur; National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli; National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra; National Institute of Technology, Warangal; Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur and National Institute of Technology, Agartala.