No new engineering colleges in Maharashtra in 2020-21

While the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has decided to relax the ban on new engineering colleges in special instances, Maharashtra will have

While the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has decided to relax the ban on new engineering colleges in special instances, Maharashtra will have no new engineering institutes established during the academic year of 2020-21.

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In November 2019, AICTE had decided to be lenient when considering proposals for new institutes, especially in areas where there are few government-run institutes. The decision came after the council received several suggestions from a handful of state governments. They sought permission for new institutes in certain districts where there is need for new technical colleges.

However, the state Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) said no exceptions would be made for Maharashtra. “We have 340 engineering colleges across the 36 districts in the state, so there is no need for new colleges, especially since vacancies in existing institutes still remain on a higher side,” said Abhay Wagh, director, DTE.

According to information shared by the state common entrance test (CET) cell, vacancies for BTech courses, in government-run as well as private institutes in Maharashtra, stood at 48% in 2019-20.

While the AICTE in January 2019 initiated a blanket ban on engineering colleges to control the growing number of institutes, the poor distribution of these institutes across the country has necessitated a relaxation of rules, said officials. “In case of certain upcoming districts where students have no option of a technical institute, we have agreed to accept proposals for government-run engineering institutes as these will be affordable. No new private engineering institutes will be approved,” said Anil Sahasrabudhe, chairman, AICTE.

At present, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra share the highest density of pharmacy institutes. Bihar as well as most states in the north-east region don’t have even 50 colleges each.

“We cannot deny the right to a college to aspirants in their own state, so we decided to accept applications for new institutes from these states while the blanket ban continues elsewhere for the next two years,” said Sahasrabudhe.