National Institute of Technology Agartala, a centrally funded Institution is setup to impart quality technical education into various levels of higher learning. It may be mentioned here that the 23rd February 2006 is a Red Letter Day in the history of Tripura Engineering College as well as for the State of Tripura as the Union Cabinet approved the proposal of State Government for conversion of Tripura Engineering College to National Institute of Technology, a fully Central Government funded Institution with Deemed to be University status and would also to become a National Centre of Excellence.

The Institute (i.e. erstwhile Tripura Engineering College) was established in 1965 with the three traditional branches of Civil, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. It was initially affiliated to Calcutta University and had the same curriculum structure and examination system at par with Bengal Engineering College (presently Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur), the other Institute affiliated to the University. After the establishment of Tripura University, the Institute was affiliated to the new Tripura University. The Institute is approved by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Computer Science & Engineering degree course has been started in 1999-2000 session as well as three new courses viz. Electrical & Electronics, Production and Transportation Engineering have been introduced in this Institute during 2005-2006 sessions to cater the needs of the technical manpower in this region.

Objective
In order to response effectively to the needs of the society, the Institute aims at
* Influencing the technical practices of the Governmental and Non-Governmental organizations through its Under Graduate and Post Graduate teaching programme for the young, prospective technocrats, training of corporate executives, consultancy and research. The research programmes are oriented towards developing technical systems that are most suitable in the Indian context particularly for North-East.
* Transpiring the technical knowledge from the Institute level to the entrepreneurs, so that an effective growth is obtained for the economic development of the Region and the Nation as a whole.
* Enhance the effectiveness of technical education and innovative system and devising a mechanism to facilitate application of research findings to solve the problems in the industry.

EDUCATION SYSTEM
The Institute offers seven UG courses and one PG courses will be introduced in Civil Engineering Department in the academic session 2007-2008. The Institute offers BE degree under Tripura University, however the Institute will be autonomous under NIT act which is already passed by the parliament.

The Institute recently introduced a new curriculum in the line of IITs where more number of elective subjects offered to make the system flexible. The Institute followed the mark based system of evaluation, but provisions have been kept for switching over to credit based system. Industrial training, under taking projects is a part of the education system and students are also encouraged to take various activities for social development through NSS and NCC.

New Initiatives
The Institute recently has been converted from State Engineering College to National Institute of Technology. The total seats have been increased from 250 to 420 for the academic session 2007-2008. Recently three Under Graduate courses has been introduced in Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Transportation Engineering and Production Engineering. The Civil Engineering Department will start a PG programme in Structural Engineering to fulfill the requirement of the State. The campus which was nonresidential is to be made residential with reopening of two boys hostels and one girls hostel for the students admitted for the session 2007-2008. A master plan is under preparation for 335 acres of land where a new campus will be built with modern facilities for overall requirement of the Institute. The Institute is getting a 33 KV dedicated power supply through Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited for uninterrupted power supply in the campus. The R. D. Department of Govt. of Tripura took total renovation work of the existing buildings after conversion to NIT. The Institute is also obtained a grant of 12 crore rupees from DoNER for the development of infrastructure like extension of Library Building, extension of Academic Building, Centralized Computer Centre, new water treatment plant and boys and girls common room.
These details are retrieved from www.nitagartala.in