The lone state-run engineering institute of Jharkhand, BIT-Sindri, is looking for retired teachers and part-time lecturers to tide over the prevailing crisis of faculty members - a prerequisite to attain academic autonomy and excellence.

Keeping up with the state government's May 14 announcement, the cradle is busy preparing a comprehensive roadmap to achieve the centre of excellence status.

The plan, which will be discussed threadbare during a review meeting in Ranchi next month, will include, among others, a proposal to fill up large number of vacancies with former teachers of BIT-Sindri and other engineering colleges as well as part-time lecturers. Currently, there are only 77 teachers as against the sanctioned strength of 194.

Also, the authorities are planning to hire contract employees against the vacancies of non-teaching staff.

"We will suggest hiring retired teachers of BIT-Sindri and other engineering colleges on a contractual basis as an stop-gap measure to tackle the current. Fresh appointments by publishing advertisements and conducting examinations will take too long," said a senior official of the institute.

BIT-Sindri director U.K. Dey admitted that filling up the vacancies at the earliest was the top priority.

A senior official at the cradle said the teachers' crisis had been posing a major hurdle in the way of academic autonomy. "The UGC had earlier turned down the cradle's application for autonomy, citing teachers' crunch. The academic autonomy is a prerequisite for developing it as a centre of excellence as envisaged by the government," he added.

On June 5, principal secretary of the state science and technology department L. Khyangte chaired a review meeting in Ranchi to discuss the future course of action of BIT-Sindri. Deputy director of the department Sneh Kumar, BIT-Sindri director Dey, professor-in-charge (academic) Girijesh Kumar and others were present. Khyangte directed BIT-Sindri to make amendments to its previous proposal submitted in November 2013 and come up with a fresh plan to improve academic standard and boost infrastructure.

Apart from teachers' recruitment, the new proposal will also include a detailed plan for developing the existing infrastructure spread over 450 acres to sustain future needs.

According to sources, the cradle is facing shortage of hostels and classrooms to accommodate around 3500 students. Also there is crisis of teachers' quarters. Further, the government is planning to increase the number of seats in some departments.