The Union Cabinet has approved over Rs 7,000 crore for construction of permanent campuses of six new Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) across the country, an official release said today.

Each of the permanent campuses to be established at Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh), Palakkad (Kerala), Dharwad (Karnataka), Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir), Bhilai (Chhattisgarh) and Goa will have a facility for housing 1,200 students from the academic year 2020-2021, it added.

"Cabinet's nod for the construction of permanent campuses gives six new IITs desired impetus #ExpansionofIITSystem," Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar wrote on Twitter.

Currently, these institutions are functioning from temporary campuses with a total strength of 1,530 students.

After the construction of the campuses, this strength will go up to 7,200.

"The Union Cabinet on October 24, 2017 approved a Rs 7,002 crore plan for construction of permanent campuses for six new IITs, to be completed by March 31, 2020," the release said.

Academic sessions of the IITs at Tirupati and Palakkad started in 2015-16 and at Dharwad, Bhilai, Jammu and Goa in 2016-17 from their respective temporary campuses.

According to the Detailed Project Report (DPR), about Rs 20,304 crore were required for the construction of the permanent campuses over a period of seven years.

The latest amount approved by the Cabinet is for the first phase.