Centre to take over Besu

New Delhi, 28 Feb: Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU), one of the pioneer institutions in engineering education in the country, is set to be taken over by the Central government.

The Centre has allocated Rs 15 crore in the budget for 2010-11 as it has decided to take over the institution following a proposal from the West Bengal government.

Established as a college in 1856 to meet requirements for trained engineering personnel, the institution became a university in 2004 and will now be a central technical institute.

The university, which was started on 24 November 1856, in three rooms in Writers' Buildings and got affiliation from the Calcutta University in 1857, will be renamed as Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology (IIEST).

It became a deemed university in 1992.

An HRD Ministry committee in 2003 recommended IIT status for seven institutions, including BESU. However, another committee of the ministry later did not support IIT status for it, but suggested the status of IT-BHU.

A bill to confer IIEST status to BESU is ready and will be sent to Cabinet soon by the HRD Ministry, sources said.

BESU, which has a campus spread over 49 acres, offers B.Tech programmes in all branches of engineering education.


(PTI)