New Delhi, Sep 17 - The union cabinet Thursday decided to set up 10 new National Institutes of Technology (NITs), six of which will come up in northeastern states to facilitate quality technical and engineering education in the region.

These new NITs will be established in Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Goa, Delhi, Pudducherry and Uttarakhand. Currently, India has 20 such top technology and engineering schools, which are considered only second to Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

'The process for setting up of these new NITs will start in 2009-10 with formation of their respective societies, constitution of their board of governors, appointment of directors etc. The admissions to these new NITs will be made from the academic session 2010-11,' Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said after the cabinet meeting.

'These institutes will be covered under the National Institutes of Technology Act, 2007 making them colleges of national importance, which will ultimately help in addressing the aspirations of people especially of the northeast region where six new NITs are to be established,' Soni said.

The process of setting up these new institutes will be completed over a period of five year. The total cost of setting up these institutions will be Rs.2,600 crore (Rs.26 billion). While the NITs at Delhi and Uttarakhand will cost the government Rs.300 crore each, the rest of them will be built at an expenditure of Rs.250 crore each, the minister added.

Though government decided to set up of new NITs, the name of Arunachal Pradesh as one of the states where an NIT would be located was not officially announced as elections to the state assembly ere scheduled for Oct 13 and the code of conduct is in place.