Howrah: Parthasarathi Chakrabarti, a professor of electronics engineering at IIT (BHU) and former director of Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad, will take over as the first full-term director of the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST), Shibpur.

The human resource development ministry, which had interviewed seven aspirants, including interim director Ajoy Kumar Ray, announced the decision on Chakrabarti's appointment on Tuesday afternoon.

The decision came a day after teachers of the Shibpur institute - known as Besu till its upgrade to IIEST in 2014 - began an indefinite sit-in outside the interim director's office, protesting the lack of research and academic infrastructure on the campus.

Chakrabarti, an alumnus of Calcutta University, told Metro he was aware of the challenges the institute had been facing and would tap his experience as a former director of NIT Allahabad to overcome the hurdles.

"I think my experience of helming NIT Allahabad would come in handy in meeting and overcoming the challenges of creating academic infrastructure and tackling allied issues," Chakrabarti said, when told about the teachers' grievance and the protest.

Asked when he would take over as IIEST director, Chakrabarti said: "I want to wait till the semester completes here (BHU) in April. Maybe I will join in May."

This is the second time in recent months that a professor from IIT has been appointed as director of a central academic institution in Bengal.

Sourav Pal, a professor of chemistry at IIT Bombay, is now director of the Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kalyani.

IIEST interim director Ray, whom Chakrabarti will succeed, is from IIT Kharagpur.

Ray has been on indefinite leave since Monday. In his absence, Aditya Bandopadhyay, one of the deans, is helming the institute as director-in-charge.

"Chakrabarti will take charge from Ray," IIEST registrar Biman Banerjee said.

Amitava Ray, an associate professor of IIEST, said the new director's biggest task would be to turn the institute around so that it could draw top-notch students .

"As Besu, a state university, the institute had a good reputation. The slide began since it became an institute of national importance," he said.

"IIEST has never been able to create the kind of infrastructure available on the campuses of its rivals such as the IITs," said Susanta Kumar Parui, the secretary of the teachers' association at IIEST.

Lack of hostels and classrooms had forced the institute to cut down its student intake by 10 per cent in 2016-17 and 2017-18. The institute had admitted 585 students in the last academic year, down from 735 in 2015-16.