AICTE nod for 20 more tech institutes

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) approved 20 more technical institutes in the state on Thursday making it a total of 48 new institutes this year. The first batch of approvals came on June 10.

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) approved 20 more technical institutes in the state on Thursday making it a total of 48 new institutes this year. The first batch of approvals came on June 10.

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Of the new batch of approvals in Maharashtra, seven are engineering colleges and nine are management institutes. So, totally there are 22 new B-schools and 26 new engineering colleges for students this year. The rest are polytechnics and architecture institutes.

AICTE is the apex body governing technical courses in management, engineering, hotel management, architecture and pharmacy. “The approval committee has recommended another visit to 93 institutes. So, there may be some more new colleges that would start operations. Another 54 applications were rejected,” said SS Mantha, officiating chairman of AICTE.

This year, fewer applications for new institutes across the country were filed.

While AICTE has tightened its norms, experts said that the market for technical education is saturated. Last year, about 22,000 seats went vacant in engineering colleges across Maharashtra. But now with the AICTE lowering the Class 12 eligibility from 50% to 45% in physics, chemistry and maths, more students will be able to make it to technical colleges.

In the country, a total of 281 new technical institutes have been approved so far.