The Institute commenced operations on 10th October 1984 as an Automobile Research-oriented Institution under the aegis of the Institute of Road Transport (IRT), Taramani, Chennai, and the State Transport Undertakings (STUs), as per G.O. Ms. No. 479 issued by the Department of Science and Technology on 26th April 1984..

Established with the noble vision of delivering quality engineering education to the underprivileged and economically weaker sections of society, the Institute is unique in its mission and foundation..

Initially, the government sanctioned a reservation of 40% of seats for the wards of STU employees, which was later increased to 50%. As per the latest directives from the Government of Tamil Nadu, this reservation has now been revised to 35%. The Institute is financially supported through a corpus fund contributed by STU employees..

At inception, the Institute admitted 120 students, with 30 students in each of the following disciplines:

• Automobile Engineering
• Computer Technology and Informatics
• Mechanical Engineering
• Transportation Engineering

The intake was increased from 120 to 180 from the academic year 1986-87 and 210 from 1992-93, 300 from 1994-95, 360 from 2002-03 and 420 from 2012-13. Now, the IRTT offers senven enginneering disciplines at under graduate level and three programs at the post graduate level.In addition to this,20% of the sanctioned intake in each branch is admitted in the second year B.E./B.Tech and MCA programs through the lateral entry scheme.

The Transportion Engineering branch was renamed as Civil Engineering in 1990-91. The Computer Technology and Informatics branch was renamed as Computer Science and Engineering in 1995 and the intake was increased to 45 and subsequently to 60. The Electronic and Communication Engineering branch was Started in 1986-87 with an intake of 30, which was subsequently increased to 45 in 1992-93 and later on to 60. The Electrical and Electronics Engineering branch was started in 1994-95 and the Information Technology branch was started in 2002-03 with an intake of 30 and subsequently increased to 60 in 2000-01. The new course Computer Science and Engineering (Data Science)is going to be started with an intake of 60 students from the current academic year 2025-26. The post graduate course M.E.(Structrual Engineering) was started in 2003-04 with a sanctioned intake of 18. The intake in Civil and Automobile Engineering Branches has been increased from 18 to 24 from the academic year 2014-15 with an intake of 24 students and M.E(Structural Engineering) has been increased to 30.

In 2021, the college was transferred to under the governance of Directorate of Technical Education (DoTE) and subsequently renamed as Government College of Engineering, Erode. It is a premier Government Engineering College affiliated to Anna University, Chennai. The Institute is located on a sprawling lush green campus of 200 acres between Chithode and Bhavani in Erode district.This Institute is functioning as the Zonal Headquarters for Zone-XI (Erode Zone) of Anna University monitoring the Engineering colleges affiliated to Anna University in Erode district and part of Namakkal, Tiruppur and Salem districts