Yes, it is a tier 1 college. NIT Surathkal ranking is 10 for B.Tech as per NIRF 2021. The Week 2021 ranked the institute 11 overall.
Other than NIT K, the other tier 1 engineering colleges in India are IIT B, IIT K, IIT KGP, IIT D, IIT M, IIT BHU, IIT HYD, NITT, NITW, and IIIT HYD.
You can categorise Engineering colleges on the following basis:
1) TIER 1- IIT-Bombay, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Kharagpur, IIITM-Kerala, IIIT-Ranchi, IIT-BHU, BITS Pilani, NIT- Surathkal, NIT-Trichy, NIT-Warangal, IIIT-Hyderabad.
2) TIER 1.5 - IIT-Mandi, IIT-Gandhinagar, IIT-Patna, IIIT-Bangalore, IIIT-Allahabad, IIIT-Delhi, Delhi Technological University, NITS-Calicut, NITS-Nagpur, NITS-Rourkela, NITS-Kurukshetra, NITS-Allahabad, NITS-Bhopal, NITS-Jaipur, NITS-Durgapur, NITS-Jamshedpur, BITS-Goa, BITS-Hyderabad.
3) Tier 2 - Other NITS, LNMIIT, Thapar University, PEC, DAIICT, IIITM Gwalior, Jadavpur University, BIT Mesra, IIT-Jammu
4) Tier 3 - State Government Colleges such as VIT, LPU, Manipal, Chitkara, SRM
5) Tier 4 - Amity, LPU, ITM, Manipal, SRM main, GLA-Mathura, Galgotia, BML, SRMS, VIT, JNTU, BMS-Bangalore, RV Bangalore, IIIT-Vadodara
Therefore, NIT Surathkal is a tier 1 institute