Bhopal: The state capital has lost more private engineering colleges than any other city in MP over the past seven years, as dwindling admissions and falling student interest hit such institutions hard.

A written reply in the recently-concluded state assembly monsoon session has revealed that 32 private engineering colleges have closed since Jan 2018, accounting for more than 25 per cent of such institutions in the state. The number of operational colleges now stands at 124.

Higher education and technical education minister Indar Singh Parmar was responding to a question of BJP MLA Dilip Singh Parihar.

Parmar said empty seats were largely the result of “falling interest in engineering courses”. He also admitted that the quality of education in many private colleges had never been checked.

The state govt also gave a city-wise list of private engineering colleges closed in the past seven years. In the list, 10 colleges were in Bhopal, nine in Indore, six in Gwalior, and three in Jabalpur. Rewa, Damoh, Balaghat and Ujjain each witnessed closure of one such college.