New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS) The central government will start collecting biometric identity of teachers engaged in engineering and management institutions to curb malpractices by the faculty, an official said Sunday.

'We will record biometric identity of all faculties working in technical educational institutions - all engineering and management colleges - from now on,' All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) chairman S.S. Mantha told IANS.

'This will reduce the malpractice by some faculties. With the help of this record, we can verify if a faculty is working in more than one institution, which is illegal,' he added.

The initiative will help in making the system transparent, explained Mantha, whose organisation is the governing body of thousands of technical institutions in the country.

He said all those who want to open new institutions will have to furnish the details of the faculties and their biometric identity before receiving the letter of approval to open the college.

'It's mandatory,' the chairman said.

On Thursday, the human resource development ministry had allowed all new management colleges to double their student intake and all engineering colleges to increase their intake by 25 percent.

All new management institutions can now take 120 students rather than the previous allotment of just 60 students. Similarly, all new engineering colleges can now take up to 300 students from the previous stipulated 240.