Cusat's Kunjali Marakkar School turns 10

Kochi: A girl cadet passed out from the Kunjali Marakkar School of Marine Engineering on the Cusat campus, this year, bringing it laurels because she is the first in South India. The school, the first one of its kind in a university in the country, completed a decade of existence this year. Here, girls are admitted to the course with a 50 per cent tuition fee concession.

The Ship at the Campus built at a cost of Rs 6 crore is one of the facilities offered by the school to train its students to become sailors. For the ship installed in 2009, D G Shipping designated IIT Khoragpur as the technical consultant.

The BTech Marine Engineering course was started in Cusat in 2003 as a division of the School of Engineering.  However, due to the uniqueness of the course, an exclusive campus was devised later. The foundation stone of the campus was laid on February 2, 2006 and it was inaugurated by the then Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan on  October 28, 2007.  

Meanwhile, the university separated the course from the School of Engineering and called it Kunjali Marakkar School of Marine Engineering.

BTech Marine Engineering which is a compulsorily residential regimental course secured approval of both the AICTE and Director General of Shipping as it is a pre-sea course.  The intake of BTech was increased from 30 to 80 in 2013.

“So far 10 batches of BTech Marine Engineering cadets have emerged out of the institution.  The last eight batches have a placement record of 100 per cent.  The 9th batch secured placement of 90 percent and the present emerging batch whose final examination results are awaited, has secured 13 placements so far,” said Prof N G Nair, Course in Charge at the KM School.

“An M.Tech programme began in 2014 with an intake of 15 cadets per batch.  Two batches have come out so far and they are also placed in different companies,” said Prof N G Nair.

K M School of Marine Engineering also began a research programme in environment protection from emissions of marine diesel engine as well as reduction of noise protection from merchant ships in 2016.