Kanpur emerging as technical education hub

The Kanpur city, which already boasts of an IIT, is set to get another 17 technical colleges. The city presently has about ten technical colleges, which will increase to 27 from this year. The state's oldest and prestigious engineering college, Harcourt Butler Technological Institute (HBTI) is also set to be upgraded as a centre of excellence with an investment of 181 crore.

"Ten colleges have received affiliation from UPTU, while the rest seven are expected to get the clearance by 10th July," UPTU Registrar U S Tomar told Business Standard. This would provide students, appearing for counselling on 10th July, 13,000 more seats to choose from.

About 40 new engineering and management colleges have got affiliation from the Uttar Pradesh Technical University (UPTU) to launch various graduate and post-graduate level technical courses in the state. Out of them, 32 are in the Kanpur-Lucknow region.

There are 286 technical colleges in the state educating about 66,024 students from different parts of the country. "We received 216 request applications for new colleges, but only 40 of them met the set standards", added Tomar.

The Maharana Pratap Group of Institutions (MPGI) is also set to start two new colleges in the city conducting courses in mass communication and engineering.

The group director, Prof Dixit says that the increased demand for professional courses and better placements have encouraged them to set up new colleges.

"We are planning to start new colleges in Agra, Bareilly and Dehradun next year," he added.

These new institutes aim at attracting the students from adjoining districts apart from preventing the students from moving to NCR for technical education. "The students from NCR and states like Bihar and Uttaranchal are coming to study here," says Dixit.

The Krishna Group of Institutions has set up two new engineering colleges, of which one is for girls apart from one management college. The owners of Pranveer Singh Institute of Technology (PSIT) are also beginning a new campus, encouraged by the recent response received by previous college.

Among other who are starting new colleges are, the congress leader Alok Mishra, the management of Narayana Group of Educational Institutions. The new colleges have been allotted 240 seats each spread over engineering branches.