Hyderabad: Engineering colleges are transforming into schools in Telangana.
Strange as it may seem this is the emergent trend in a few districts. Two leading institutions — Bhashyam and Delhi Public School — have established their new campuses in engineering colleges in Ranga Reddy district. There have been similar instances in Mahbubnagar district.
These engineering colleges could not function normally either due to denial of affiliation by the JNTU or lack of student enrolment. According to Telangana Private Engineering Colleges Association general secretary Sunil Reddy, setting up an engineering college costs between Rs 10 crore and Rs 20 crore.
“As per earlier norms, a new college should be established in 10 acres (now revised to 7.5 acres) of land with an infrastructure of 1.5 lakh built up area, Mr Sunil Reddy told this correspondent.
“Since land costs are higher in Ranga Reddy district, new colleges had to shell out nearly '20 crore. Colleges in the districts and rural areas cost between '10 crore and '15 crore,” Mr Sunil Reddy said.
While denial of permission by the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University due to non-compliance of norms has led a few engineering colleges to shut shop, some institutions could not function as there were very few takers.
“Hundreds of colleges have mushroomed in Telangana, especially Ranga Reddy district, over the last decade. However, not all found acceptance because students and parents chose established colleges. Hence a majority of seats could not be filled in the new colleges," he said.
Without the desired number of students, meeting expenses like salaries of teaching and non-teaching faculty was becoming a big headache. Hence, the managements of a few engineering colleges looked for alternative options.
