IIT Kharagpur

 The  Indian institute of technology

The first Indian institute of technology was born in may 1950 in Hijli, Kharagpur in the eastern part of India.
The large number of youth who participated in the armed struggle or the non cooperation movement could not be accommodated in ordinary jails.  Then British Government decided to establish a few detention camps - the first one was located in Buxa Fort which was followed by the setting up of the Hijli Detention Camp in 1930. The Hijli Detention Camp bears a very significant mark in our freedom movement. Two unarmed detainees were shot dead here by the British Police on Sept. 16, 1931. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose came to Hijli for collecting the bodies of the two great sons of the freedom movement - Santosh Kumar Mitra and Tarakeswar Sengupta. All the national leaders including Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore voiced their strong protests against the British Raj over this incident. The Hijli Detention Camp was closed in 1937 and was reopened again in 1940 to detain the freedom fighters without trial. In 1942 the camp was again closed .

There were 224 freshers and 42 teachers in August 1951 when the first session started. The class rooms, laboratories and the Administrative office wer ehoused in the historic building of the Hijli Detention Camp. The Institute started its academic programme with only ten Departments. On March, 1952, Pandit Nehru laid the foundation stone of the New Building.

The layout of the present campus and the design of our buildings were carried out by a host of engineers and architects under the guidance of an eminent Swiss architect Dr. Werner M. Moser. A large amount of financial help was available for procuring a number of machine tools from the ministry of industry and supply. The Institute Workshop was supposed to be one of the best in the country. The Institute was fortunate enough to have Sir J.C.Ghosh, an eminent Scientist as its first Director under whose able stewadship the Institute grew in its formative years. The first Board of Governors was constituted with Dr. B.C. Roy, as the chairman and Mr. N.R.Sarkar, Sir Jehangir J. Gandhi, Dr. Tarachand, Mr. K.R.K. Menon, Mr. T. Sivasankar, Dr. S.S. Bhatnagar, Mr. H. Kabir and Dr. J.C. Ghosh as memebers. Some eminent scholars from Europe had joined this Institute in its formative years and the first two of them were Prof. R.A. Kraus and Prof.H. Tischner, who was incidentally the first Head of Electronics and ECE Department.

On Sept. 15, 1956, the Parliament of India passed an act known as the Indian Institute of Technology(Kharagpur) Act declaring this Institute as an Institute of national importance. The Institute was also given the status of an autonomous University. From this modest start in 1950, IIT Kharagpur has been engaged in a steady process of development with about 18 academic departments, five centres of excellence. the vast tree-laden campus, spreading over 2100 acres has a self contained township of over 15,000 inhabitants. Currently we have about 550 faculty, 1700 employees and 9000 students on the campus.

Acadamics offerings by the campus :

aerospace engineering
agricultural & food engineering
architecture & regional planning
biotechnology
chemical engineering
chemistry
civil engineering
computer science & engineering
cryogenic engineering
centre for educational technology
electrical engineering
electronics & electrical communication engineering
g s sanyal school of telecommunications
geology & geophysics
humanities & social sciences
industrial & systems engineering
information technology
materials science
mathematics
mechanical engineering
medical science & technology
metallurgical & materials engineering
mining engineering
ocean engineering & naval architecture
oceans, rivers, atmosphere and land sciences
physics
p k sinha centre for bio energy
rajendra mishra school of engineering entrepreneurship
rajiv gandhi school of intellectual property law
ranbir and chitra gupta school of infrastructure design and management
reliability engineering centre
rubber technology centre
rural development centre
school of bioscience
school of energy science & engineering
school of environmental science and technology
school of nano-science and technology
school of water resources
vinod gupta school of management

Vision of the iit kharagpur is to

Initiate, nurture and sustain engagement with alumni and Corporations as active partners in the Institute’s pursuit of excellence.

Mission

To create programs and opportunities for the Alumni and Corporations

To contribute to the development of the Institute

To manage initiatives and provide support to the Alumni and Corporations

To strengthen their engagement with the Institute

To provide support within the Institute

To promote and strengthen engagement with the Alumni and Corporations 

To manage utilization and enhancement of the Institute’s endowments and gifts from well-wishers

Location

Kharagpur is known world over for two landmarks. One, the longest railway platform, and the other, the Indian Institute of Technology, more commonly known as lIT. Situated about 120 km west of Kolkata, Kharagpur can be reached in about 2 hours by train from Howrah railway station of Kolkata or 3 hours by car from Kolkata Airport. Kharagpur is also connected by direct train services to most major cities of the country. The Institute is about 10 minutes drive (5 km) from the Kharagpur railway station. Private taxi, autorickshaw or cycle-rickshaw can be hired to reach the Institute.

Contact information:

Indian Institute of Technology of Kharagpur

Kharagpur

India-721302

+91-3222-255303.