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.