Towards meeting the growing demand of manpower in the field of technology, the then Delhi Administration, with the approval of Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), Govt. of India, established a new Engineering College by the name of Delhi Institute of Technology (DIT) in July, 1983.

In the year 1983, the Institute started with the academic program at UG level in the area of Electronics & Communication Engineering with an intake of 45 Students under the Faculty of Technology, University of Delhi. New programs in the areas of Computer Engineering, Instrumentation & Control Engineering, and Manufacturing Processes & Automation Engineering were added subsequently. Administrative autonomy was granted to the institute in 1986. The Institute was registered as a Society in the name of “Delhi Institute of Technology” (DIT) on 12th June 1987 under the Societies Registration Act No. XXI of 1860 (Registration No. S-17742 of 1987). The Institute initiated Ph.D. programs in 1989 and also formulated a number of PG programs, four of which were approved by the AICTE in the year 1994. The Institute has been and is affiliated to University of Delhi for all its UG, PG and Ph.D. programs.

From 1983 till 1998, the Institute was operating from its old campus at the old I.G. Block, Kashmere Gate, Delhi - 110006. The Institute was formally inaugurated in its own new campus in Dwarka, New Delhi, 23rd January, 1997 by

Sh. Atal Bihari Vajpayee , the former Prime Minister of India. The Institute was renamed as "Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology" (NSIT) in the year 1997 vide Gazette notification No. D.L. - 33002/97 dated 20.02.1997.