Patna: The department of science and technology has finalised the appointment of 130 teachers for the civil and mechanical branches of state engineering colleges. Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) declared the results last week.

"BPSC will issue recommendation letters for appointment of teachers within a week. Once the BPSC issues the letter, the science & technology department will start the process of appointing teachers in 16 state engineering colleges," said Atul Sinha, director (technical) (science & technology).

The letter includes the name of candidate, address and branch in which he/she has qualified the written test. BPSC is conducting the interview round.

The 130 teachers include 68 in civil engineering and 73 in the mechanical branch. Sinha said: "Around six to seven teachers from each engineering branch will be appointed in old engineering colleges."

The seven engineering colleges in the state are Bhagalpur College of Engineering, Muzaffarpur Institute of Technology, Motihari Engineering College, Gaya College of Engineering, Darbhanga College of Engineering, Nalanda College of Engineering (Chandi) and Loknayak Jai Prakash Institute Of Technology (Chhapra).

"As six engineering colleges set up last year have students in only two four semesters, three to four teachers will be appointed in those." The new engineering colleges in Saharsa, Purnea and Supaul will get two to three teachers only.

"Engineering colleges, including Gaya College of Engineering, suffer from acute shortage of teachers. Now, we can expect academic activities at our college to improve," said Anil Kumar, a mechanical student at the Gaya college.

He claimed that in absence of regular teachers, visiting faculty teach in their college.

The appointment process had begun three years ago after the earlier round was carried out more than two decades ago.

Presently, there are 80 teachers in different branches of 16 engineering colleges.