Wednesday, Jun 24, 2009
Chennai: Tamil Nadu will get five new government engineering colleges this year, including one at Arani in Tiruvannamalai district.

The plan to start the new colleges was reiterated in the policy note on Higher Education presented in the Assembly on Tuesday by Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy. The Arani Government Engineering College will come up on 25 acres near Arani, according to Anna University-Chennai Vice-Chancellor P. Mannar Jawahar. The Tiruvannamalai Collector is expected to hand over the site within a week and construction of classrooms and some basic facilities is expected to be completed in six months.

However, for the first semester’s classes, which will begin on August 25, the university is scouting for rented premises in the town. After six months, students are expected to move to the new campus, says Dr. Jawahar. The process of recruiting faculty members has begun and advertisements have been issued. Hiring will begin by the month-end.

The college will begin with an intake of 240 students. Each of the four streams – Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE) and Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE) – will have an intake of 60 students.

The two new government engineering colleges started under the auspices of Anna University-Chennai in Villupuram and Tindivanam last year are still functioning from rented premises. Tenders have been awarded for construction on their new campuses and they are expected to move within six months as well, says Dr. Jawahar.