Durgapur, July 12: The regional engineering college here has been accorded the status of a National Institute of Technology, Deemed University, by a Cabinet decision.

A formal note from the human resources development ministry yesterday informed the college of the decision that conferred the same status on all the 17 regional engineering colleges in the country.

Almost a year ago, authorities of the college here had suspended 450 second-year students for demonstrating before higher education minister Satyasadhan Chakraborty against the government’s lack of initiative in pushing for the status for their institute.

“We are immensely happy that the college has been converted to a deemed university. It has been our demand for the past seven years,” Chakraborty today said over phone from Calcutta. “Initially, we had objected to the UGC wanting us to share half the running costs while they enjoyed administrative control, but they have acceded to our demand and have agreed to bear the entire cost of running the NIT.”

On August 3 last year, second-year students had surrounded Chakraborty’s car, shouting slogans and blaming him for the delay. The suspensions were later revoked after the minister intervened.