Ranchi, Oct. 31: The science and technology department today approved new schemes worth over Rs 17 crore for technological upgrade of BIT-Sindri, with installation of Wide Area Network (WAN) on the campus being the main project.

“The new network will enable the institute’s library add to its collection of e-books and e-journals and thus create better academic environment. I have been told that at present, subscriptions to e-books and e-journals are available for 12 hours a day. We want to make it round the clock, thus paving the way for organising smart classes,” said deputy chief minister Sudesh Mahto, who heads the science and technology department.

With the funds influx, the only government-run engineering college of Jharkhand will boast state-of-the-art facilities on a par with other leading tech cradles of the country. Earlier, BIT-Sindri had bagged grants-in-aid to the tune of Rs 12 crore from the World Bank under Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme.

Located about 27km from Dhanbad, BIT was founded in 1949 under the name College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering in Patna. It was shifted to Sindri in 1950 and renamed as Bihar Institute of Technology with the objective of making it the country’s first IIT. However, IIT-Kharagpur happened. After creation of Jharkhand, it was again rechristened as Birsa Institute of Technology in 2002.

Mahto stressed that skill development was the government’s priority under the twelfth five-year plan. Setting up more new engineering colleges and polytechnics are therefore being given special priority. About a fortnight ago, the state government inked a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with Techno India Group for running a new engineering college in Ramgarh and polytechnic at Silli on public-private-partnership basis.

“The MoA for running the engineering colleges at Chaibasa and Dumka too will be finalised very soon,” he added.