First, you should decide which course you want to pursue mechanical or Mining as that would help in comparing institutes and choose the one with the better program.

NIT Durgapur is one of the top institutions of the country with a NIRF ranking of 13 for BTech. Whereas, NIT Durgapur is ranked 47th by NIRF 2020 for BTech.

Admission:

Both the NIT Durgapur and Surathkal offer BTech programs for Mechanical and Mining Engineering. The basic eligibility is that the student must have passed the 10+2 examination with 75% marks from any recognized board and the admission will be based on JEE Mains rank.

Cut off:

In 2019 the closing JEE Main cutoff at NIT Durgapur and NIT Surathkal was as follows.

• NIT Durgapur, Mechanical Engineering- 34273

• NIT Surathkal, Mining Engineering- 27212 (Other State), 38716 (Home State)

Fee Structure:

The total fee for B.tech in the mining program in NIT Surathkal is 5.39 lakh. On the other hand, the total fee for B.tech in mechanical engineering in NIT Durgapur is 5.39 lakhs.

Both NIT Durgapur and NIT Surathkal provide a research-oriented teaching-learning environment in the Institute with a focus on excellence and innovation.

Placement :

NIT-Durgapur is considered as an institute of National Importance and has excellent placement records. Some of the major recruiters at NIT Durgapur for the Mechanical Engineering branch are Wipro, TCS, Infosys, IBM, Ashok Leyland, Erricson, ITC, etc.

While on the other hand NIT Surathkal also has a good placement rate. The major companies visited the campus for recruitment were LnT, BPCL, HPCL, Total Environment, Technip, ExxonMobil, IRCON International.

NIT Durgapur's main objective is research-oriented teaching-learning which helps students to pursue creative research and develop new technologies in Mechanical Engineering. On the other hand, NIT Surathkal is among the top Mining Engineering Institutions in the country. You should choose the institute based on your choice of the branch.

You will be able to change branches in Heritage Institute of Technology if you have a GPA of 8.5. It is very easy to score a GPA of 8.5 or above in the first year as all you will be studying is the basics.

There is also not much competition when it comes to changing to Mechanical as it is not that difficult. However, it is more difficult to change branches like CS to ECE.

Even if your CGPA is average, you can apply for the change in the branch. You will most likely be able to get your branch changed.

It’s difficult to determine which institute is better as the courses in question are different. However, given below are information about the two courses which may help you make the decision.

• Though NIT Surathkal is among the oldest of the NIT’s, their IT department is comparatively new. IIT Bhubaneswar’s Mechanical Engineering department is popular and one of the core subjects.
• It is always better to study Mechanical engineering in IIT Bhubaneswar than IT from NIT Surathkal because core engineering will be preferred by recruiting companies than IT.
• NIT Surathkal has better placements than IIT Bhubaneswar due to its older and more noticeable connections with the recruiting companies.
• An IIT Bhubaneswar graduate will be offered less salary than an NIT graduate due to its reputation and popularity among recruiters. A graduate from NIT receives an average salary package of around 9 lakhs per annum.
• NIT Surathkal is ranked 5th in their Engineering category and IIT Bhubaneswar ranked 9th in their engineering category by Times Engineering Ranking 2019.
• The Cut off for IT in NIT is 2509-3321 and for Mechanical Engineering in IIT Bhubaneswar is 4003-12065.
• IIT (Bhubaneswar) as a brand that is much more popular than NIT (Surathkal) and is valued by both students and recruiters alike.

The final decision is up to the choice of a student and his/her preferred course of study.

The IIT Bhubaneswar placement in 2019 was quite good irrespective of the different streams and courses. Companies like Google and Amazon offer huge placement packages for IIT Bhubaneswar students. The IIT Bhubaneswar also collaborates with foreign universities like the University of Massachusetts, University of Warwick, McGill University, etc.

Out of the 35 students in the Mechanical Engineering domain with mechanical system design specialization, 32 of them got secured positions in campus placements. There has been a placement record of 83% for this domain in 2019 with an average salary of 11.44 LPA. A total of 89 companies visited IIT Bhubaneswar and among these were ISRO, IOCL, TATA STEEL, TESCO, etc.

Despite being a new IIT, IIT Bhubaneswar offers decent placement for mechanical system design specialization and is considered as one of the centers of attraction for Indian students.

There are 23 IITs in India and the total number of seats for UG programs for these 23 IITs is 11279. Out of 23 IITs, 16 of them participated in the NIRF ranking.

As of 2019, the best IITs from India with their NIRF rankings in Engineering are as follows:

Mechanical engineering in IIT Bhubaneswar is one of the best branches to study. Last year in 2019, the placement in this branch from this institute was 85%. Apart from this, the institute also started dual degree programs in Mechanical engineering apart from the four-year Btech course.

The IIT Bhubaneswar has the best faculty in mechanical engineering with most of them being from IIT Kharagpur. From the very beginning of 1st year, the IIT Bhubaneswar provides an opportunity for the students to work on their projects by giving them access to DIC (Design Innovation Centre).