Bhubaneswar, Feb. 16 -- Bhubaneswar: Private engineering colleges in Odisha are going bust in a big way. As many as 37 out of 90 engineering colleges functional in the State will face progressive closure in 2020-21. The colleges dot across the State ranging from Rayagada to Berhampur, Sambalpur, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jharsuguda and Bhubaneswar etc.

As per highly placed sources in the AICTE (All India Council of Technical Education), though, a high of 50 private engineering colleges in the State have an enrollment rate of around or below 30 per cent for five consecutive academic sessions, around 37 of them will go for progressive closure in 2020-21.

Progressive closure means asking the colleges not to enroll new batches, but earlier batches...