Cabinet approves funds for 6 IITs

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday approved funds for setting up of six new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Jammu and Kerala.

The Cabinet also gave its approval for operationalisation of these IITs initially by forming Societies under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, in order to give a legal status to them till the amendment for their incorporation in The Institutes of Technology Act, 1961, is enacted. 

Each new IIT will have an initial intake of 180 students in its first year from temporary/transit which would increase to 450 in the second year and to 928 (840 undergraduates, 80 postgraduates and 8 PhD) in the third year of their operation, an official statement said.

The total cost for running these IITs is Rs 1,411.80 crore and will be incurred between 2015-16 and 2018-19, the statement said.

The new IITs will be operated from their temporary campuses for the initial period of three years before shifting into their permanent campuses in the fourth year. Each IIT will have a sanctioned strength of faculty members, with a faculty-student ratio of 1:10.

The Cabinet also approved the revised cost estimates to the tune of Rs 4,799 crore as against the originally approved Rs 2,500 crore, for setting up of five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research  in Kolkata, Pune, Mohali, Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram.