Automobile Engineering in Besu

Second to IIT Chennai, Shibpur’s Bengal Engineering & Science University (Besu) will have a course in Automobile Engineering starting July next. When that happens, the 30-odd students who will study the 2-year postgraduate course will surely have a ready job market to be absorbed.

Interestingly, this development is occurring at a time when auto major Tata Motors plans to make Rs.1 lakh car from its proposed Singur plant. In fact Tata Motors has agreed to associate itself with Besu’s center of excellence in automobile engineering.

Besu’s initiative is more laudable because it has tied up with Canada-based University of Windsor (UWindsor for short) for its automobile engineering course. UWindsor is strategically located in southernmost Canada just across the border from Detroit in US state of Michigan, where some of the largest auto companies in the world (GM, Ford, Chrysler, etc.) have their manufacturing facilities.

UWindsor is widely acknowledged as the ‘supplier’ of highly trained manpower for Detroit auto companies. Besu’s association with UWindsor will mean there will be similarities in the former’s course structure and contents. Besu’s 2-year program will include a year of classroom session followed by one year of industrial training.

According to news reports, more automobile companies are planning to enter West Bengal, including Ashok Leyland, Bharat Forge and perhaps Toyota at a later stage. Who knows Besu may well start a graduate course if everything proceeds as foreseen. For the moment, 3 faculty members of Besu’s automobile engineering department are set to visit UWindsor for honing their skills to impart solid education.

View of Detroit skyline and Detroit River from UWindsor campus [Picture source]

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