Cooch Behar, Aug. 16: Classes began in the first engineering college of Cooch Behar district today with 300 students enrolled for five courses.

The Cooch Behar Government Engineering College started functioning from a new building constructed on a 65 bigha plot on the banks of the Torsa river in Harinchaora.

The college offers five courses with an intake of 60 students each.

"We have started courses in civil, electrical and mechanical engineering; computer science; and electronics and communication engineering. There are 60 students in each of the four-year BTech courses. We have 16 teachers at present and two more will join soon," said Prabhas Kumar Roy, the principal of the college.

He said the college was affiliated to the state's directorate of technical education. The building was constructed at a cost of Rs 45 crore from the funds of the north Bengal development department.

"Laboratories have been put in place and other infrastructure is also ready. More laboratory equipment and other facilities will be added soon," Roy said.

Mamata Banerjee had announced the setting up of an engineering college for Cooch Behar during a visit here in 2012. The construction of the building began in 2013.

The first batch of students sat for their classes today. "We are happy with the infrastructure. It seems we are studying in a private college and not a government one," said Parjukta Mukherjee, a student of electronics and communication engineering.

Anurima Banerjee, another student, said the campus was very good. "We are enjoying the atmosphere. The campus is on the banks of the Torsa and the place is peaceful. The faculty and other facilities are all good," she said.

Sources said this is the first engineering college in Cooch Behar district. Otherwise, the nearest engineering college is located 110km away in Jalpaiguri.

Sources in the district administration said the plot where the college had come up had initially been allotted for the construction of the Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University.

"There was a tussle between district Trinamul president and Natabari MLA Rabindranath Ghosh and Sitalkuchi MLA Hiten Barman. Barman wanted the university to come up in his constituency from where Panchanan Barma, the Rajbangshi reformer, hailed. Ghosh wanted it to come up at Harinchaora close to his constituency. However, the university campus came up on vested land along Cooch Behar's Vivekananda Road and the engineering college was constructed at Harinchaora," a source said.

Harinchaora is 6km from here.

Cooch Behar had previously only a polytechnic and no engineering college.