The board of governors of the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology met for the first time since last December on October 10 and approved two key infrastructure projects.

Officials said the board cleared the construction of a hostel, which can accommodate around 1,000 students, and an academic complex.

Director Parthasarathi Chakrabarti had said in August that the institute was not being able to “implement policy decisions” because the board was not meeting.

The projects that have been delayed in the absence of a board meeting include construction of hostels, classrooms and laboratories.

The Shibpur institute is being forced to cut down its student intake since the 2015-16 academic year because of lack of enough hostel and classroom space. This year the institute has taken in 585 students, around 20 per cent less than the intake in the 2015-16 academic year (735).

The earlier board of governors of the institute was dissolved in December after it had completed its three-year term. It had held its last meeting on December 9.

The October 10 meeting of the new board, held in Delhi, was attended by six members, including Indian Institute of Science director Anurag Kumar, who took part in the proceedings through Skype.

A full-fledged board of IIEST has 13 members. The human resource development ministry is yet to name seven members, including the chairperson.

Director Chakrabarti said that since a number of key decisions were on hold, the authorities decided to call a meeting of the truncated board.

“Among those who attended the meeting are two representatives of the human resource development ministry and three representatives of the institute, including myself,” the director said.

The registrar of the institute, Biman Banerjee, cited another reason for holding the board meeting.

“From now on the convocation will be held in December. It used to be held in March. Certain key decisions related to the convocation, such as who will be awarded DSc and DLitt (honorary) and who will deliver the convocation address, can only be approved by the board of governors. So, it was imperative that the board met at the earliest,” Banerjee said.