In the late fifties, the Government of India decided to establish Regional Engineering Colleges under the Quality Technical Education Policy – one each in every major state – with the prime objective of imparting quality technical education throughout the country and to foster national integration. These Regional Engineering Colleges were established as joint ventures of the Government of India and the respective state governments. Assam is a major state in the North-East of India and the 15th REC was officially established in Silchar in 1967. Though 14 other RECs started functioning within 1967, it took about another decade for REC Silchar to start its academic programmes due to various constraints.

The College started functioning in 1967 from a camp office in Shillong (the then Capital of Assam) with Dr. S. K. Baruah as Principal and Prof. B.R. Seth, the then Vice-Chancellor of Dibrugarh University as Chairman of the Board of Governors. Subsequently, an area of about 540 acres of land was acquired by the Govt. of Assam, on the outskirts of Silchar town.

The first batch of students was admitted in 1977 in the B.E. programmes in 3 branches of Engineering viz. Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering. The total intake in the first batch was 60 students. The meager infra-structural facilities consisted of only a part of a hostel, two Assam type buildings (for classes and administration), a workshop building, seven faculty quarters and a few staff quarters of the College when the College started its academic programme in November 1977. Initially, the classes started with only 4 full time teachers and with Dr. H. R. Chablani as Principal. The College started its academic programme with affiliation to Gauhati University. The affiliation was later shifted to Assam University in 1994. The first batch of B.E students were awarded their degrees in the year 1982-83. Subsequently, two more branches viz. (i) Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering and (ii) Computer Science and Engineering started functioning from the year 1983 and 1987 respectively. Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering commenced its journey in 2009. MTech and PhD programmes were introduced in 2004 while MSc programmes started in 2009. MBA programme was introduced from 2004.

On the basis of the report of the High Powered Joint Expert Committee of AICTE and UGC under the chairmanship of Prof. S. K. Joshi, Director General of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Regional Engineering College Silchar has been transformed and upgraded to National Institute of Technology, Silchar with a Deemed University status with effect from 28.06.2002. The Institute has been taken over by Government of India and subsequently made into a fully funded Central Government autonomous Institution. This ensures a better financial status for NIT Silchar, which will accelerate its growth and ensure that it becomes one of the premier technological Institutes of not just the North-East but also of the entire nation. The Institute has remodeled its curriculum and academic activities in line with that of IITs. With its Deemed University status, the Institute started awarding degrees from the year 2002 and the first convocation of the Institute was held in 16 February 2004 to award degrees to all those students who qualified for the degree after its transformation into an NIT.

The Institute is situated at Silchar (latitude 24.50N, longitude 92.510E, at a height of 114.68m above MSL), the headquarters of the district of Cachar in Assam. The location of the Institute is at a distance of about eight kilometers to the south of the town of Silchar on the Silchar-Hailakandi road. Cachar is the southernmost district of Assam bordering Mizoram on south, Manipur on east and Tripura and Meghalaya on west. Silchar is well connected with the rest of the country via Guwahati, the major city of the North East region, by air and road and by air via Kolkata. Silchar has direct air link with Imphal, Aizawl and Agartala. Buses, Auto-Rickshaws and Taxis are available from Silchar town to the College campus.

• The Rules relating to the Establishment of the Regional Engineering College (Silchar) Society was adopted on 20 February 1967
• Regional Engineering College (Silchar) Society was registereHid with the Government of Assam on 21 February 1967 vide Government Registration No. RS/108 of 1966-67.
• Bachelor of Engineering Programmes in Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering commenced in 1977. Classes started on 2 November 1977
• Name of the Regional Engineering College (Silchar) Society was changed to National Institute of Technology Silchar Society with effect from 10.01.2002
• Declared as a Deemed University by the Government of India on 28 June 2002
• Accorded the status of the Institution of National Importance by the National Institutes of Technology Act 2007 (Act 29 of 2007 of the Parliament of India and notified on 5 th June 2007)
• First Statues of the National Institutes of Technology was notified on 24 April 2009