Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Technical University (UPTU) will now offer online teaching programmes to its students, officials said Monday. This is expected to substantially overcome its staff shortage problem. UPTU is facing a shortage of nearly 2,000 faculty members.

"For conducting online interactive classrooms, we are setting up a virtual classroom hub at our Noida campus," UPTU Vice Chancellor Prem Vrat told IANS.

According to officials, the upcoming hub will beam teaching programmes to nearly 12 institutes that would have direct access.

The institutes will then extend the online facility to at least 25 colleges located in their vicinity.

The project has been funded by the union ministry of information technology, which has sanctioned Rs.30 million for the purpose, officials added.

The online classes will take about nine months to start in a full-fledged manner, they added.

UPTU is taking assistance of experts from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) for the project.

UPTU governs nearly 280 engineering and other technical institutes across the state.

At present, there are 12,000 faculty members associated with different colleges affiliated to the university.

Nearly 150,000 students are pursuing various technical courses at the UPTU.