Why civil engineering is losing to IT in tech colleges

MASTER BUILDERS: More money is being pumped to boost infrastucture but the master builders are missing.

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Mumbai: More money is being pumped into infrastructure projects in India today than ever before but the master builders, the civil engineers, are missing. In most technical colleges, more and more students now prefer to join the IT branch. So where are the civil engineers going to come from to build the India of the future?

Like many students Sashi and Varun – who are in their third year civil engineering course in one of India's premier technical institute, IIT Bombay – now don’t feel they cannot stay with the core stream of civil engineering.

“I don’t think civil engineering is an exciting career prospect, and finance pays more,” Varun reasoned. While Sashi said, “The pay packet is the problem. I would any day prefer a job in management.”

Increasingly, civil has become one of the less preferred branches of engineering. Industry experts estimate that India faces a shortage of 70,000 civil engineers each year.

Not surprising as just 200 of the 1,700 technical colleges certified by AICTE offer civil engineering as a course and that means just 10,000 civil engineering graduates per year.

In Mumbai, the Government has planned three major sealinks, several flyovers and a metro line. With new airports being planned across the country the need for qualified and experienced civil engineers has never been more acute.

The major reasons for the lack of interest in civil engineering are excessive Government control in major projects and a tendency to turn towards foreign technology.

Managing Director of S N Bhobhe and Associates Atul Bhobhe said, “It's not that we don't have the knowledge but it's really our foreign fixation.”

India owes its strength in the IT sector to the sector-friendly policies by the Government, which created a large pool of lucrative jobs. Perhaps loosening the Government grip on large infrastructure projects as well is the way forward.