As many as 78 engineering and technical colleges are set to shut down in the ongoing academic year (2019-20), with the greatest number of them from Uttar Pradesh, reports The Hindu Businessline.

The colleges have opted for 'progressive closure' given the low number of takers for courses being offered, and because of shortage of funds. In this respect, the said colleges have also opted to not admit students from this academic session.

During 2018-19 academic session, 54 colleges had opted for progressive closure. A year before that, in 2017-18, the figure stood at 106 colleges. This year, of all colleges which have opted for closure, 31 are based in Uttar Pradesh, and six are based in Punjab.

Following Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, five such colleges are based in Chhattisgarh and Haryana, four each in Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, and two colleges each in Rajasthan, Telangana, Odisha and Maharashtra.