IIT Kharagpur is the 3rd oldest technical institute in the West Bengal state after Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology Shibpur (1856) and Jadavpur University (established as Bengal technical institute in 1906) When the first session started in August 1951, there were 224 students and 42 teachers in the ten departments of the institute. The classrooms, laboratories and the administrative office were housed in the historic building of the Hijli Detention Camp (now known as Shaheed Bhawan), where political revolutionaries were imprisoned during the British rule.[8] The office building had served as the headquarters of the Bomber Command of the U.S. 20th Air Force during World War II.