The institute came into existence on 7th, August 1986 as Regional Engineering College, Hamirpur in Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, India, it was a joint enterprise of the Government of India and the Government of Himachal Pradesh. The classes commenced at Government Polytechnic College, Hamirpur as REC Hamirpur did not have a campus initially. The classes and administration moved to current location in 1987 when few buildings were constructed. At the inception, the institute only had three departments, Civil Engineering, Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. Later, two more departments Electronics and Communication Engineering and Computer Science and Engineering were added in 1988 and 1989 respectively. The department of Architecture was established in 2000. Recently in 2013, Chemical Engineering department also came into existence. The institute only offered undergraduate courses until 2005, when it started offering graduate and Ph.D programs.
On 26 June 2