At least 30 per cent of seats in state engineering colleges are vacant after the first round of student counselling that ended on Thursday evening.

Government officials claim all seats have not been filled because several of the students who cleared the Bihar Combined Entrance Competitive Examination had been successful in the Joint Entrance Examination as well, paving the way for their admission to the IITs and NITs. But other reasons for students to steer clear of the state engineering colleges are also the lack of infrastructure and faculty problems at the institutes.

Bihar has 13 engineering colleges, including six new ones that were opened this year in Begusarai, Madhepura, Sasaram, Katihar, Sitamarhi and Bakhtiyarpur.

The science and technology department conducted the first round of counselling from July 1. Against 3,124 engineering seats across the 13 engineering colleges, 917 seats are vacant after Thursday.

"Around 900 engineering seats are vacant after the first round of counselling. The colleges will conduct another round and we are hopeful of the seats being filled," said Atul Sinha, director, technical education, science and technology. "Many of the students eligible for this counselling had cleared the entrance tests for both the state engineering colleges and premier institutions such as IITs and NITs. So, they have preferred IITs or NITs over the state colleges."

Government officials associated with the counselling process said a huge chunk of the vacant seats are from the new engineering colleges that have taken up the total number of engineering seats in the state colleges from 1,643 last year to 3,124.

The colleges - old and new - are plagued by lack of infrastructure and faculty shortage. The sanctioned teaching strength in the colleges is 450, sources in the science and technology department said, but only 250, including 80 regular teachers, are at work.

"There are around 64 sanctioned posts of teachers in Gaya Engineering College but there are only seven permanent teachers," said a faculty member at the college not authorised to speak to the media. "For rest of the teachers the college has to depend on guest faculties and ad hoc teachers."

A student at Muzaffarpur Institute of Technology also spoke of the teacher shortage. "There is such a severe shortage of teachers in the engineering colleges that meritorious students are not attracted to them," said the student, now in third-year mechanical engineering. "The poor placement records are another reason students stay away from the state institutions."