Cabinet spokesperson Jai Narayan Vyas said the full-fledged IIT, with 120 seats, will start functioning from the Gandhinagar Engineering College, Chandkheda, from the coming academic session.

The sanctioned institute will have 40 seats each in mechanical, electrical, and chemical streams and award a four-year Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) degree. “It was a long pending demand of the state government that has finally borne fruit. Admissions, on the basis of the Joint Entrance Examination, will start from the coming academic session and follow all rules as applicable to the existing IITs,” Vyas said in a media briefing.

With IIT mandated to be a residential institute, the government promised to make adequate hostel accommodations for students. “Though a proper campus will take some time, we will ensure all required facilities at the temporary campus,” said Vyas.

The Chandkheda campus is already hosting an extension centre of the IIT-Powai (Mumbai) that conducts short-term high-end courses for mid-career engineering professionals in Gujarat’s industries.

Though the state is not sure of when and where the new campus of IIT-Gujarat will come up, the government announced that it will try to locate it on the “knowledge corridor” between Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad.

“An IIT needs a large campus and we will provide as much land as demanded. But a board needs to be formed first and appointments made. For the time being, the Chandkheda campus will be adequate,” said Vyas, an IIT-Powai alumnus.

Earlier, a 300-acre piece of land was earmarked for the proposed IIT, but with the Centre delaying the decision, the state government gifted it to the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City.