National Institute of Technology (NIT) has notched up an improvement in placements in comparison with previous years.

Around 82.76 per cent students from the engineering institute have been offered jobs - 312 students among the 377 eligible for placements this year. Last year, around 304 students received job offers from different companies from among 450 hopefuls.

More companies also visited the institute for placements this year.

Five new companies - Drishti Soft Solution Private Limited, Oxigen Services India Private Limited, Robert BOSCH, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and Unitedhealth Group - came looking for the students. While Drishti Soft Solution recruited one student at a package of Rs 16.85 lakh per annum, Oxigen Services recruited one at Rs 8 lakh a year. Robert BOSCH, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Unitedhealth Group recruited many more.

"The placement records improved this year because of the new companies," said NIT-Patna placement in-charge Samrat Mukherjee .

IBM and Infosys offered jobs to 160 students. These companies visited the institute last year too, but did not have too many jobs to offer.

The other positive development in the placements is that around 20students have received jobs in tier I companies (which offer a pay package of more than Rs 8 lakh a year). Unitedhealth Group has given jobs worth Rs 9.88 lakh per annum each to seven students.

A computer science engineering student, who was among the seven bagged offers with Unitedhealth Group, said: "This year, many companies we dream about visited the institute and offered jobs - not only in the IT sector, but also core services."

The computer science engineering (CSE) and the electronics and communication engineering (ECE) departments fared best in the placements. CSE students received 120.29 per cent job offers while ECE students received 100 per cent job offers.

Around 93.8 per cent students bagged jobs from the electrical engineering department.

The placement in-charge was hopeful of further success, as this was just the first phase of placements. It will continue till May and many companies, such as Samsung, will visit the institute for placements.

NIT-Patna is the second-oldest engineering college in India. It can be traced to 1886 with the establishment of a survey training school and subsequent renaming it to Bihar college of Engineering in 1900.