National Institute of Technology Silchar is about eight kilometres south of Silchar town in Cachar district, Assam. It was officially established in 1967 as the 15th Regional Engineering College, a joint venture of the Government of India and the Government of Assam, and started from a camp office in Shillong. Its first students were admitted in November 1977, and about 540 acres were acquired for the campus.
The college was affiliated first to Gauhati University and from 1994 to Assam University. It was upgraded to a National Institute of Technology with deemed university status from 28 June 2002 and is fully funded by the central government. Its NIRF 2026 data submission reports 4,128 students in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in 2024-25, plus 638 PhD students. Prof. Dilip Kumar Baidya is Director.