Patiala’s aero engg college to begin classes in August
PATIALA: Three years and two deadlines later, the Punjab State Aeronautical Engineering College (PSAEC) in Patiala is finally set to begin its maiden academic session in August.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on April 17 with Bathinda’s Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University (MRSPTU) in the presence of chief minister Amarinder Singh has paved the way for this development. MRSPTU V-C Mohan Paul Singh Ishar said the college will start functioning from the current academic session. BTech in aeronautical engineering and BSc (Hons) in aircraft maintenance classes will start from the first week of August, as the curriculum for both courses has already been finalised.
“The BTech (aerospace engineering) course will begin in 2019. However, all the modalities have been completed,” he added.
A notification regarding the admissions will soon be issued and as per the university’s norms, the admissions to 60 BTech seats and 30 BSc (Hons) seats will be done on merit basis.
A high-level team from the Bathinda university has also visited the state-of-art PSAEC, whose campus is located on the Patiala-Sangrur road, right next to the Patiala Aviation Club.
The state government had in 2015 secured a ₹26-crore grant from the Centre under its Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) to set up the college.
The construction of the building has been completed and required equipment and infrastructure to begin the operations are in place as per DGCA norms. Moreover, equipment of two aircrafts have also been procured and are being assembled.
One of the senior officials, requesting anonymity, said delay on the part of the Centre in releasing funds slowed down the construction work.
PAMEC ALREADY IN REVIVAL MODE
The local Punjab Aircraft Maintenance Engineering College (PAMEC), the lone governmentaided institute in the country, is in a revival mode after it resumed the operations in 2017, after the gap of five years.
The college runs a three-year aircraft maintenance engineering (licence) course, admissions to which will open in September.