Jorhat, Aug. 20: The oldest technical institute in the Northeast, HRH The Prince of Wales Institute of Science and Technology in Jorhat, is in a dilapidated state with only one out of the five boys’ hostels habitable and departments badly in need of repair.

The government despite the college having the manpower and laboratories and a proposal being made for upgrading it to degree course-level, has made no move.

A source said the government was spending crores of rupees in developing new infrastructure for engineering colleges and creating posts and paying salaries for new appointments to these colleges.

However, the institute, which has the manpower and requires minimum infrastructure, is languishing because of government neglect.

The source said in some institutions, the government has introduced the engineering stream, although there were no faculty to teach the subjects.

H.K. Bhattacharjya, principal of the institute, said a proposal had been presented to the chief minister in 2009 for upgrading the college to the degree course-level, in the three-plus-three pattern, for three engineering departments out of the six existing ones.

The three-plus-three pattern proposal entailed that a student acquired a diploma certificate after three years.

After that if they wished, they could continue for three more years for an engineering degree just like the lateral entry system, which existed in multiple engineering colleges.

In this system, a technical degree holder could gain admission in the second year of engineering and study for three years to get the degree.

“The chief minister gave us a patient hearing, but said a lot of money would be expended on infrastructure and that this was not possible at the moment. However, in 2010, Rs 5-crore was sanctioned in the budget, but could not be released, as the work was not completed on time. The fund went back unutilised and the next year it was not sanctioned again,” Bhattacharjya said.

The contractor in the meantime had spent about Rs 15 to 20 lakh, and started construction for the principal’s residence.

A wall was put up in the mechanical department, whereas another wall was pulled down in the boys’ hostel, to carry on with the construction.

A temporary wall had been built on top of the main administrative building and a tinned roof was placed atop pillars to prevent the rain.

A.C. Bora, director, Assam Council of Technical Education, Guwahati, said a diploma institute could be upgraded to a degree-level institute, only if a technical campus was established first.

“There is no proposal to upgrade POWIET to a degree-level engineering college because of the immense cost, and the government is on a spree on spending to set up engineering colleges in different places. A meeting will be held on August 17 and 18 to find out about the new schemes that could be included and make the diploma course more suited to the requirement of the current times,” he said.

Bholanath Boruah, a timber merchant had donated Rs 1 lakh to the British in 1922 for establishing a technical school in the name of the Prince of Wales here.

“Known as the War Technical School at the time of Second World War, it was the pioneer technical institute in the Northeast and imparted a one-year certificate course in mechanical engineering. Today it has six departments — mechanical, civil, electrical, instrumentation, agro-engineering and electronics and telecommunication,” the principal said.