The Department of Civil Engineering is one of the oldest Departments in this Institute. It was established at the inception stage of the Calicut Regional Engineering College (CREC), which was the forerunner to the present National Institute of Technology, Calicut (NITC) in 1961. Over the years the Department has grown from a level of offering only an undergraduate program leading to a Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering to one offering undergraduate, graduate, and research programs. At present, the Department offers an undergraduate program in Civil Engineering leading to the BTech degree and four graduate programs one each in Structural Engineering, Traffic and Transportation Planning, Offshore Structures, and Environmental Geotechnology leading to the MTech degree of the Institute. In addition to the above there are a number of students pursuing research in various fields of Civil Engineering at the Department leading to PhD. The Department is a recognized QIP centre of the AICTE for both MTech and PhD programs. In addition to the above courses, the Department has been conducting a number of short term training programs for the benefit of faculty of technical institutions and working professionals.

The Department is also actively engaged in R&D, testing and consultancy activities. A number of R&D projects sponsored by various departments and organizations including the Ministry of Human Resources Development, and the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, AICTE, ADRB, NPOL, and the Kerala State Council for Science Technology and Environment have been completed and many are presently in progress. The Department has offered and continues to offer testing and consultancy services to various Government Departments and Organizations, both the Public and Private sector. The Government of Kerala has approved the Department as an authority for checking and scrutinising designs of public works. Consultancy services are being offered in all fields of Civil Engineering interest.