The Sir M. Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology is named after Sir M. Visvesvaraya, an engineer and a statesman par excellence. It is on an expanse of 53.8 hectares on NH 7, 21 km from Bangalore city railway station. The institute has approximately 2,600 students and over 145 teaching faculties. It also contains a Dental college , where students are offered degeree's in dental sciences. The College is known to be one of the best colleges in India and provides excellent education. "Kalanjali" is an annual inter-collegiate cultural festival of the college that sees participation from students at institutes all across the state. It is usually two- to three-day festival that showcases the college's talent and competitive spirit with students competing state-wide. The events normally include: "Verve" is an intra-college festival of the same joyous spirit as "Kalanjali" but on a smaller scale. In 2002, Sir MVIT was one of the 24 colleges selected throughout India to send a team to the prestigious BBC University Challenge Quiz hosted by Siddharth Basu on BBC World.