The National Institute of Technology Patna (NIT Patna) is a public engineering and technical institution located in Patna, the capital of Bihar, India. It is one of the National Institutes of Technology (NITs), a group of autonomous engineering institutes declared as Institutes of National Importance under the National Institutes of Technology Act, 2007. The institute traces its origins to one of the oldest engineering establishments in the Indian subcontinent and offers undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programmes across various branches of engineering, science, and architecture.
| Name | National Institute of Technology, Patna |
|---|---|
| Type | Public technical institution |
| Status | Institute of National Importance |
| Location | Patna, Bihar, India |
| Governing law | National Institutes of Technology Act, 2007 |
| Affiliation | Ministry of Education, Government of India |
| Predecessor | Bihar College of Engineering |
NIT Patna sits on the southern bank of the river Ganga in the historic Mahendru locality of Patna. The institution evolved from earlier engineering schools that operated in the region from the colonial period, before being reorganised as the Bihar College of Engineering and subsequently upgraded into a National Institute of Technology. With this upgrade, the institute came under the direct administrative purview of the Government of India and the Ministry of Education (formerly the Ministry of Human Resource Development).
NIT Patna offers Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) programmes in disciplines including civil, mechanical, electrical, electronics and communication, computer science, and chemical engineering, along with a Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) programme. Postgraduate offerings include Master of Technology (M.Tech) and Master of Science (M.Sc) programmes, while research scholars pursue Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) degrees across engineering and science departments. Admission to undergraduate engineering programmes is conducted through the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE Main), with seat allocation handled by the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA), while postgraduate admissions are based on the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE).
The main campus of NIT Patna is situated at Ashok Rajpath in Patna, adjacent to the river Ganga. To accommodate growth in student intake and academic programmes, an extension campus has been developed at Bihta in the outskirts of Patna district.
As the sole NIT in Bihar, the institute serves as a major centre for technical education in the state and contributes to the wider network of NITs across India. Its long institutional history, dating back to early engineering instruction in eastern India, gives it a distinctive position among Indian engineering institutions.