With few exceptions, the opening of new engineering institutes will be banned for another two years. Anil Sahasrabuddhe, President, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) gave this information. The moratorium on setting up of new engineering institutes has been extended by two years. The move comes after a government-constituted committee recommended continuation of the current moratorium. AICTE had put a two-year moratorium on approving new colleges in 2020.
Sahasrabuddhe said, “AICTE has extended its moratorium on setting up of new engineering institutes by two years with few exceptions.”
Exceptions include the state government’s proposal to start new polytechnics in traditional, emerging, multidisciplinary, business sectors including public-private partnership (PPP) mode. The exception includes any industry registered as a trust, society, company established under section eight of the Companies Act, 2013. Under the conditions, they should have a minimum annual turnover of Rs 5,000 crore (in the last three years).
The technical education regulator had constituted a committee in 2018 under the chairmanship of BVR Mohan Reddy, chairman of the ‘Board of Governors’ of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad, on short-term and medium-term perspective planning for engineering education.
The Committee observed that the capacity utilization (available capacity versus enrollment) at undergraduate and postgraduate levels was 49.8 per cent during 2017-18. The committee had recommended that no new institutes be sanctioned by AICTE in the year commencing from the academic year 2020 and the new capacity may be reviewed every two years thereafter.