The first Indian Institute of Technology was thus established in May 1950 as the Eastern Higher Technical Institute.[6] It was located in Esplanade East, Calcutta, and in September 1950 shifted to its permanent campus at Hijli, Kharagpur 120 kilometres south-west of Kolkata (formerly called Calcutta). Hijli had been used as a detention camp during the British colonial rule in India, to keep Indian freedom fighters captive.[7] 0