AICTE has approved a proposal for starting M. Tech courses with specialisation in the three novel disciplines at Tripura Institute of Technology. Representational image

Tripura would commence a post-graduate programme in Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) and Embedded System, Thermal Engineering and Data Science in the state-run Tripura Institute of Technology (TIT) from the current academic session. Tripura Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath told reporters here today that the All Indian Council of Technical Education (AICTE) has approved a proposal for starting MTech courses with specialisation in the three novel disciplines at TIT.

While TIT is the only state government-run engineering college of Tripura, the state also has a National Institute of Technology, an Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) and a private engineering college apart from six government-run polytechnic colleges (ITI) for diploma studies.

A total of 1,100 students are currently enrolled at TIT in electronic & communication engineering, computer science and engineering, civil engineering, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering degree courses. As many as 2,712 others are studying in diploma courses in the ITIs.

In his address, the minister said his government’s sole education policy has been to ensure quality education since it was formed in March, 2018. Few courses at TIT were held up due to a lack of approval from the AICTE. Electronics and Communication engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering got approval from the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) last year.

“Students from Tripura had to travel to faraway states to study post-graduate courses in these disciplines. At least 54 more students can benefit each year at 18 students in each of these new courses,” Nath said.

The education minister said his department was already instructed to start the recruitment process for required faculty members and assured students would face no problem of the shortage of teachers.

Earlier in 2018, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said his government plans on developing Tripura as a model state of transit, logistics and IT hub and appealed engineering students and those who graduated to consider entrepreneurship. He assured government support and said the youth force should think of the country before shipping out elsewhere.