Six new engineering colleges are expected to be set up in Bihar from the 2008-09 academic session under an action plan to have several new engineering colleges by the end of next year.
In a move to catch up with other states for greater technical education opportunities, the NDA government has decided to set up institutes beyond the big ones like the IIT, NIT and BIT, state Science and Technology department sources said.
The IIT, Patna began operations this month.
"We have decided to make the six new colleges functional from the current academic session as the state has only two engineering colleges in Bhagalpur and at Muzaffarpur at present", the sources said.
Three more engineering colleges were ready to start academic session in Gaya, Darbhanga and Motihari under the first-phase of the state government's initiatives, they said.
Other three engineering colleges were in various stages of completion under the second phase of the plan at Sitamarhi, Chandil and Madhepura.
All these colleges would start academic session from this year with admissions made through the Bihar Combined Competitive Engineering Entrance Test (BCCEET), held earlier this year.
Work on the building of another engineering college is in the final stages of completion at Barauni, to be ready by next year.
Altogether 20 engineering colleges will come up by the end of next year, sources said.
