IIEST Shibpur has sought funds from the Centre to build a new hostel to attract more students.

Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST) director Parthasarathi Chakrabarti met the new minister of human resource and development Ramesh Pokhriyal on Wednesday and asked for funds to build the new hostel.

He also sought funds for developing the new academic complex as more students will be admitted this year with the introduction of quota for financially weak candidates of the general category.

“I have sought grant for developing the hostel and the academic complex. Developing these facilities are our first priority. The students will suffer in absence of these facilities. The minister has noted down our submission,” said director Chakrabarti.

An institute official said the Union minister had convened a meeting with the directors of the NITs and the IIEST to know about their requirements and chart a road map.

During the last year’s convocation held on December 23, Chakrabarti had underlined the need for better infrastructure to draw bright students, while admitting that poor hostel facilities were driving them away.

As of the now the intake capacity of the institute for BTech, MTech and PhD courses stands at 3,800. However, the institute has hostel facility for 2,000 students.

An official of the institute said when the IIEST had started its journey in 2014, the Centre had sanctioned a corpus of Rs 592 to be spent over next five years.

According to him, the grant for the hostel and academic complex did not reach the institute.

“As the institute was in the transition mode (being elevated from a state university Besu to a central government-run academic institute) and did not have a full-term director till June 2018, the projects were not pursued seriously. Now the first full-term director Chakrabarti has approached the minister for the grant,” the official said.

The institute has plans to develop a hostel that can accommodate 1,000 students and an academic complex.

He added that once the institute’s board of governors meets next, the detailed project report would be endorsed and sent to the ministry for sanction of funds.

Another official expressed concern as this year increased number of students, over and above the existing pool, would be admitted under the quota for financially weak candidates belonging to the general category.

“We are worried how the additional number of students would be admitted as the institute is reeling from hostel crisis. Therefore the director stressed the need for sanction of funds to develop hostels at the earliest,” he said.

Lack of hostel facilities and classrooms with poor infrastructure had forced the institute to slash its intake capacity by 10 per cent in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 academic years.

Last year the institute had taken in 585 students, around 20 per cent less than the intake of 735 in the 2015-16 academic session.

Director Chakrabarti said that Pokhriyal had asked the NITs and the IIEST to fill up the positions for vacant teachers at the earliest.

“Our vacancy count stands at 75. We have advertised the posts,” he said.