NEW DELHI: Civil engineering has registered the lowest placement rate of a mere 38% between 2012-13 and 2015-16 among six engineering streams approved by the All India Council for Technical Education ( AICTE ). At a time when the construction sector is one of the fastest growing, this apparent lack of demand for civil engineers comes as quite a surprise.Data from the AICTE shows that over this period chemical engineering had the highest placement rates. Surprisingly, the electronics and communication stream too had a relatively low placement rate of 48%. Only three streams -- chemical engineering, computer science and mechanical engineering – saw more than half their graduates getting placed.The data also shows a considerable variation in pass percentages across streams, with civil engineering once again having the lowest rate of 39% and electronics and communications registering a 74% success rate in clearing the course.Mechanical engineering continues to be the most popular engineering stream with over 20 lakh students enrolling for the courses approved by the AICTE followed by computer science, civil engineering, electronics and communication, electrical engineering and chemical engineering.Mechanical engineering has recorded 47% pass outs in these four years, but placement in the stream is barely 50%. Chemical engineering is the least preferred branch with just 86,000 students enrolling in four years.Interestingly, between 2013-14 and 2017-18 only 55% of AICTE approved engineering seats were filled and 214 institutes were closed during this period. Over 77 lakh students enrolled for various engineering streams during this period, over three-fourths of them boys.According to industry experts, the percentage of engineering seats being filled has come down over time because of an explosion in the number of seats. Another factor, they suggest, is that those graduating out of engineering colleges do not always possess skills that industry requires resulting in their not getting hired.