IITs wary of plan to add 1,000 seats

The Joint Admission Board (JAB) hopes to increase the intake capacity of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) by 1,000 seats but some of the institutes are unsure if they will be able to accommodate more students in their campuses.

“Before increasing the intake capacity, we need to make sure we have enough space to accommodate all students. We don’t want to overburden our classrooms and hostels,” said Sudhir Jain, director, IIT-Gandhinagar.

Last year, IIT-Bombay (IIT-B) had started a new undergraduate course and increased its intake capacity by 30 seats, but the institute has no such plans for the upcoming academic year. It has accommodation for 8,000 students but houses 10,400.

“One of the new hostel buildings that can accommodate 1,100 rooms should be ready by mid2019 and another similar hostel building should come up in another two years,” said Devang Khakhar, director, IIT-B. He said while the institute has no plans of increasing the intake capacity of existing courses, they might start a new course. “There’ll be no increase in the intake capacity of IIT-Goa, IIT-Dharwad [centres are mentored by IIT-B] as well.”

Similarly, officials at IIT-Madras hope to start work on their new hostel building by March this year in order to accommodate more students.

“Without making space for more students, we can’t raise our intake capacity,” said Jagadeesh Kumar, dean academics, IIT-Madras.

MUMBAI: