The sole state-run engineering college, BIT-Sindri, is undergoing a huge tech overhaul.

Set up in 1949, BIT-Sindri has joined hands with tech giants Siemens, Oracle and Cisco to develop 17 laboratories to train its students to cater to today's industrial needs.

Fifteen laboratories belonging to different engineering departments, including mechanical, electrical, electronics and communication and production engineering, will be developed in collaboration with Siemens India, an industrial engineering firm. Two more labs, one for the IT department, and another for computer science engineering, will be set up in collaboration with computer technology giants Oracle and Cisco, respectively.

Construction of all 17 laboratories began earlier this month. Two, in collaboration with Siemens, are ready. The rest are expected to be complete by July-end.

This apart, a three-storey IT building, spread over 9,000 sqft, is expected to come up by November. "The new IT building will be constructed by November but the ground floor will be ready by next month," BIT-Sindri director D.K. Singh told this paper.

Thirty-five laboratory staff - 25 belonging to Siemens and 10 from BIT-Sindri - are being trained to operate and maintain the labs.

"The labs are being set up in accordance with the directive of the state higher and technical education department secretary Ajay Kumar Singh to develop the infrastructure of the institute according to the latest technological requirement," said the BIT-Sindri director.

The higher and technical education department had signed an MoU with Siemens for the setting up the labs at BIT-Sindri and government polytechnic institutes run by the state government.

"The labs will give an edge to the institute and help to groom its students according to the needs of this fast-changing industry," Singh said.

He added that the institute would soon set up an incubation centre to promote start-up ventures by students. The institute is also setting up an Internet of Things lab with the help of the Dubai chapter of BIT-Sindri Alumni Association that will be operational from July. Internet of Things is an interconnection via the Internet of a vast network of computing devices, enabling them to send and receive data.

A smart class has also been set up by the institute last month through which industry captains will mentor students on various projects.