Lucknow, Dec 14 (IANS) The Indian Institute of Technology, Rajasthan (IIT-R), which has been operating from the IIT Kanpur campus for the past two academic sessions, is set to shift to Jodhpur.

According to an IIT official, the human resource development ministry has identified around 700 acres along the Jodhpur-Nagaur road in Rajasthan for setting up IIT-R.

However, till the upcoming campus is ready to start its operations, IIT-R will function from a Jodhpur-based government engineering college affiliated to the Jai Narain Vyas University, also in Jodhpur, the official added.

'After the 2009-10 academic session is over and the counselling of next year's students gets completed, IIT-R will be shifted to the M.B.M. Engineering College in Jodhpur in June 2010,' said IIT Kanpur registrar S.S. Kashalkar.

Authorities at the Kanpur institute have left it to the faculty members to decide whether they want to move to IIT-R.

'We will not object to any faculty member who wish to move to IIT-R,' Kashalkar, who has additional charge as IIT-R registrar, told IANS over telephone.

According to officials, 240 students are enrolled at IIT-R, and the number is likely to go up to 450 once the Jodhpur institute starts operating.

In the 2008-09 academic session, 112 students were enrolled at IIT-R, which rose to 128 in the current session.

Though IIT-R kicked off in 2008-09, the central government decided to run it from the Kanpur campus due to non-availability of land in Rajasthan. In fact, students were even accommodated in vacant flats of the faculty.