SRINAGAR: After a wait of five years, the administration at Kashmir University will finally introduce Civil Engineering branch in the B Tech programme at its Zakura campus’s Institute of Technology (IOT) from the upcoming academic session, officials said.
The IOT at the Zakura campus established in the year 2014 has been teaching several engineering branches except civil engineering due to lack of the required teaching faculty and physical infrastructure.
In the upcoming academic session, civil engineering branch will be introduced as the teaching faculty is now sufficient at the institution, Registrar KU, Prof Nisar Ahmad Mir, told Kashmir Reader.
Prof Mir said that the teaching faculty was sourced from within the institution in view of the common courses taught in the opening semesters of different branches of engineering.
“We may also hire contractual teachers under academic arrangement if the need arises,” he added.
In the meantime, the university has also requested the government for creation of at last 4 permanent faculty members for teaching B Tech Civil Engineering branch at the Zakura campus, the registrar added.
As for the required laboratories for the students, Prof Mir said that the construction work, estimated to cost about Rs 2 crore, is in the tendering process.
Dean Engineering at KU, Prof Syed Muzaffar Andrabi, informed that an intake capacity of 60 seats has been fixed for the B Tech Civil Engineering branch besides the 6 seats to be filled through lateral entry.
Prof Andrabi further said that admission to the programme would be made on the basis of JEE score later this year.
The Civil Engineering branch was approved by the Kashmir University Council in 2017 and the current Vice Chancellor also gave his nod to the programme last year. The plan, however, did not materialise due to lack of infrastructure.
In absence of the Civil Engineering branch, a senior professor said, many students in Kashmir had to move out of the valley for pursuing the course.

Irshad Khan