Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday announced to set up women's polytechnic colleges across all sub-divisions, but it will be a challenge to implement it on the ground.

Addressing a public meeting at Saharsa, around 240km east of Patna, Nitish announced that for increasing the women's and girls' enrolment in technical education, every sub-division should have a women's polytechnic college.

In Bihar, there are 32 such colleges spread across 27 districts. Eighteen of them were set up in the past two years. If the science and technology department goes about setting up polytechnic colleges in every sub-division, it will have to set up 102 new institutes.

A polytechnic college is a government institution imparting diploma course in mechanical, electrical, electronics, civil, computer and other engineering branches.

A senior department official said: "Setting up polytechnic colleges in every sub-division is not an easy task, it requires infrastructure (land) and manpower (teaching and non-teaching staff)."

According to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) norms, all polytechnic colleges should have 36 teachers.

Contrary to AICTE norms, the existing colleges have been running with inadequate staff. Against the 1,152 sanctioned strength, there are around 200 (95 teachers on regular scale and around 100 on a contractual basis) working in colleges across the state.

The official said: "The polytechnic colleges are already running with just 20 per cent of staff strength. If around 100 colleges are set up, it will require around 3,600 teachers which will be a Herculean task for the state government.

Compounding woes is the state government's decision to appoint 407 teachers at engineering colleges and 468 teachers at polytechnic colleges is hanging afire for more than a year - the matter is pending in Patna High Court.

However, the science and technology department is hopeful that the teacher crunch will be sorted out soon and there will be no problem in setting up new colleges.

Science and technology department, director, technical, Atul Sinha said: "There will be no staff crunch even if the government decides to set up new women's polytechnic colleges in all sub-divisions."

Sources said that apart from the staff crunch, the government will also face hurdles in finding land.

According to AICTE norms, a polytechnic college requires four acres of land though the plots are smaller at many educational institutions. The state government has not been able to acquire land for an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Darbhanga and a Central University at Vikramshila in Bhagalpur.

V.S. Dubey, a former chief secretary of Bihar and Jharkhand, welcomed the decision but stated that it will require willpower. He said: "Setting up a polytechnic college requires at least Rs 8 to 10 crore for infrastructure. It will be a challenging task for the state government to pump in Rs 1,000 crore."

Satyajit Kumar, president, Bihar PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: "The already functioning polytechnic colleges are not producing students capable of getting jobs. How will the students be employed after completing their course?"

Even polytechnic students complained about lack of placement facilities at their institutions.

A sophomore at Government Polytechnic College, Patliputra, said: "Students passing out from our institute have to find jobs for themselves as there is no campus placements." The student also rued about lack of infrastructure facilities at his institution.