Bhubaneswar, May 2: The department of technical education is planning to build four new government engineering colleges at Kendrapara, Balangir, Balasore and Koraput.

In a proposal to the finance sector, the department has also suggested to address the critical gap of infrastructure in existing technological universities and colleges through additional workshops, set up of research laboratories and incubation centres.

The estimated budget of the project is Rs 531 crore.

“For the new engineering colleges, the concerned district collectors will be requested to identify and handover 100 acres free of encumbrances at suitable locations with good road connectivity, adequate power and water supply at respective locations for the establishment of the new institutes,” said a senior official in the department.

At present, the state has six constituent colleges under Biju Patnaik University of Technology, namely, College of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar, Government College of Engineering, Keonjhar, Parala Maharaj Engineering College, Berhampur, Government Engineering College, Kalahandi, Institute of Management and Information Technology, Cuttack and Centre for IT Education Bhubaneswar apart from the Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology, Sarang, and Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology, Burla.

“Difficulties have been faced in implementing government decisions because of too many students in the private engineering colleges,” said the department in its proposal trying to justify the increase of colleges.