The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the Phase-B construction plan for five new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) located in Andhra Pradesh (IIT Tirupati), Kerala (IIT Palakkad), Chhattisgarh (IIT Bhilai), Jammu & Kashmir (IIT Jammu), and Karnataka (IIT Dharwad).

The five institutes began operations between 2015 and 2017 from temporary campuses and have since shifted to permanent locations.

The move will significantly expand academic and infrastructure capacity at these institutions, said a press release by the Press Information Bureau.

The total outlay for the expansion is Rs 11,828.79 crore, to be spent over four years from 2025–26 to 2028–29.

As part of the plan, the Cabinet has also approved the creation of 130 new faculty posts at the level of Professor (Level 14 and above) across these five institutes.

The expansion aims to increase the student intake by 6,576, taking the total capacity from the current 7,111 to 13,687 students. This increase will span undergraduate (UG), postgraduate (PG), and PhD programmes. Specifically, student numbers are projected to grow by 1,364 in the first year, 1,738 in the second year, 1,767 in the third year, and 1,707 in the fourth year of the implementation period.

Five new state-of-the-art research parks will also be developed, with a focus on strengthening industry-academia collaboration and fostering innovation.

The press release highlighted that this expansion aligns with the 2025–26 Budget announcement, which had noted a 100 per cent increase in total IIT student strength over the past decade — from 65,000 to 1.35 lakh.

The newly approved infrastructure will accommodate an additional 6,500 students, it added.