New Delhi: Manipur will soon get its first National Institute of Technology (NIT), parliament was informed Wednesday.

"An in-principle approval has been accorded to convert Manipur Institute of Technology, Imphal, into NIT," Minister of State for Human Resource Development D. Purandeswari told the Lok Sabha.

Currently, there are 20 NITs, one each in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the minister said.

In 2003, the government had decided to take over 17 Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs) and upgrade them as NITs.

Thereafter, on the request from the respective states, three more engineering colleges - the Bihar College of Engineering, Patna, the Government Engineering College, Raipur, and the Tripura Engineering College, Agartala, were upgraded in 2004, 2005 and 2006, respectively. (IANS)