The National Institute of Technology, Warangal (NITW), started off as the Regional Engineering College, Warangal (RECW), established in 1959, by the then Honorable Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru laying the foundation stone. It was the first of 17 such Regional Engineering Colleges to be set up across the length and breadth of India. n 1959 the institute started with civil, electrical and mechanical engineering departments.A Bachelors program in Chemical Engineering was started in 1964. The following year saw the start of Metallurgical engineering program. In 1971, the college started the undergraduate program in Electronics and Communication engineering. In 1976, its affiliation was changed from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University to Kakatiya University, with which it remained affiliated, until the institute was granted a deemed university status in 2002. In 1994, the institute was selected by Overseas Development Administration (ODA) of Great Britain for exchange programs between, the UK and India in the field of information technology. This program ran till 1999. In 2000, the institute started its MBA program. The next year, a center of Software Technology Parks of India was opened in its campus(it is currently dysfunctional). In September 2002, the college was renamed as National Institute of technology and was given a deemed university status.Recently,in 2006,the institute started a Bachelors program in Biotechnology. It has been given the status of Institute of National Importance (INI) bringing it at par with IITs,IISc and ISI on 15 august 2007.