BIT-Sindri

Student intake at BIT-Sindri will witness more than a threefold increase by the end of this decade, with the state-owned cradle on Tuesday deciding to raise its number of seats as well as add to the courses on offer.

A meeting of a high-level panel of BIT-Sindri, constituted to prepare a blueprint for the institute’s expansion, also planned to increase faculty members for pure sciences.

The meeting chaired by BIT-Sindri director S.K. Singh decided to raise the student intake of various engineering departments such as mechanical, which has 105 seats, electrical (99), chemical (91) and civil (98) to 120 each.

The student strength of production and metallurgical department, both of which accommodate 54 seats each, electronics (52), mining (49), computer science (38) and IT (40) will also be increased to 60 each.

The institute aims to raise the number of seats up to 10,000 from the existing 3,000 within nine years. A three-phase expansion plan of three years each will be drafted.

“We are planning to increase the number of seats from 3,000 to 5,200 in the first phase. The remaining seats will be raised in the next two phases,” said Singh, adding, “We are also planning to launch an MBA programme at the institute.”

The director said the meeting also planned to increase BTech seats under the lateral entry scheme from the existing 10 per cent of the total students to 20. Notably, 68 engineering diploma holders, who form 10 per cent of the existing 680 BTech students, are currently enrolled in the second year through lateral entry.

The committee also planned to launch MTech courses in five branches — production, electronics, computer science, IT and mining — with 25 seats each. At present, MTech courses are offered in mechanical, metallurgical, civil, chemical and electrical engineering departments.

This apart, the institute also plans to introduce new departments such as mechatronics, electrical and electronics, ceramic, biotechnology, environmental science and remote sensing at the undergraduate level.

“It was the very first meeting of the committee and we are yet to finalise the proposal to be sent to the science and technology department. Two to three more meetings are a must to draft a complete proposal. We may also take suggestions from experts of IIT-Kanpur or IIT-Kharagpur, who have experience in running an institute with a large number of departments and faculties,” Singh told The Telegraph.

He added that reconstruction of several buildings, including hostels, by dismantling them and stepping up infrastructure would also be required to accommodate the increased number of students. He pointed out that the 26 hostels of BIT-Sindri were two-storey buildings, adding that they would need to add more floors to house more students.

The next meeting of the committee is on December 10.

The panel is charting the expansion plan following instructions from the state science and technology department, which is keen on utilising the full potential of the 62-year-old institute spread across 400 acres.

Among those who attended the meeting were head of department of civil engineering R.P. Sharma, head of department (mining) U.K. Dey, head of department (geology), professor in charge of training and placement Girijesh Kumar and professor of chemical engineering Om Prakash.