New Himachal colleges to have job-oriented courses

Mandi: The Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) has announced that
it will be gin the next academic session of the Jawaharlal Nehru
Engineering College in Sundernagar from its new campus that will be
ready by July this year.

The DTE had also planned to establish five new polytechnic colleges
and Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) which will have job-oriented
technical education courses.

The DTE had reviewed the performances of the polytechnic colleges and
ITIs in the region recently. According to Technical Education Minister
Narinder Bragta, it was found that over 40,000 manpower in the state
of Himachal Pradesh is generated by the ITIs and polytechnic colleges.

The minister stated that out of these, 90 percent of trained
individuals were getting placements in various sectors inside and
outside Himachal.

The five new polytechnic colleges that had been planned by the
government were to be established at Bilaspur, Kalpa (in Kinnaur),
Kullu, Lahaul-Spiti and Paonta Sahib. The minister informed that each
of these colleges will involve an investment of Rs.12 crore.

According to the minister, two out of the four ITIs at Tikkar and
Bhadrota had been made functional in the year 2010. "The other ITIs at
Ghumarwin and Sandhol will be made functional this year," he said.

He further added that the construction of the building for Sundernagar
Engineering College will be finished by July this year and the college
will be made functional at the new campus from the next academic
session.

It was also informed by Bragta that the Pragtinagar College at Guma
would have an ITI, polytechnic college and engineering college under
one roof and would commence functioning from this year itself.

He further stated that there were also efforts on to set up a
hydro-engineering college at Bandla soon.