Calcutta, Dec. 28: The number of students at IIT Kharagpur would go up from 7,000 to 24,000 in 10 years.

The capacity expansion would be part of a Rs 396 crore plan to upgrade the institute’s academic and physical infrastructure.

“We can now accommodate a very small percentage of the five lakh students who take the Joint Entrance Examination. Our goal is to reach out to more students,” said IIT Kharagpur director Damodar Acharya.

The expansion would be in phases. The institute’s student strength would go up to 12,000 by 2012.

Sanjiv Goenka, the chairman of the Kharagpur IIT board of governors, said Rs 55.3 crore would be spent on a new academic complex that would have 100 classrooms. In addition, 200 tutorial rooms would be built with Rs 22.17 crore to accommodate the new students.

A new girls’ hostel and two for the boys also feature in the plans. Goenka promised “additional capacity for 1,500 students”.

This is the biggest expansion plan drawn up by the oldest IIT. The institute had increased its student strength from 4,500 to 7,000 in 2005.

A Chemical Sciences Laboratory Complex and a building for the chemical and rubber technology department is also on the cards.

Over the next two years, a School of Entrepreneurship funded partially by alumnus Vinod Gupta and a School of Infrastructural Design and Management, for which another alumnus, Ranbir Singh Gupta, has given $1 million, would be set up.

The entrepreneurship school, set to start by 2009, would offer BTech and masters’ degrees. “We’d start with 30 students and each of them would be mentored by a faculty member and an established entrepreneur from among our alumni,” said Acharya.

Pact with Berkeley

The state government has signed an agreement with Berkeley University of California to be partners in a biotech park in Kharagpur.

The 100-acre park would come up adjacent to an IT hub being set up in the town. IIT Kharagpur would also be a partner in the project in which a private firm would build the infrastructure.