Chennai: All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has given its nod to 85 new self-financing engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu (TN). With this decision of AICTE the total number of private engineering institutes reached 420 across the state. Currently, TN occupies the second position after Andhra Pradesh (AP) with the highest of 523 engineering colleges. Next comes Maharashtra with 227 and then Karnataka 154 such institutes as per AICTE records.
Since, last 2-3 years the state has witnessed a remarkable increase in the field of technical education. As per the records, in 2004-05, TN had merely 213 self-financing engineering colleges; the number has increased in leaps and bounds after that from 224 in 2005-06 to 238 in 2206-07 and 263 in 2007-08. AICTE granted approval to 72 institutions last year taking it further at 335. In 2009, by granting approval to 85 more engineering institutes, the total becomes 420, which includes around half-a-dozen exclusive women's institutions.
With 85 new self-financing engineering colleges coming up, the number of BE /B Tech seats available in private colleges cross 1.64 lakh in the state. Moreover, there will be more than 96,000 seats available for grabs under the government quota at Anna University itself.
