Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 10 (IANS): Kerala Education Minister C. Raveendranath informed the state legislative assembly on Thursday that over 50 per cent of seats in engineering colleges in the state were lying vacant.

"We are expecting a report from the Justice K. Dineshan Commission and, once we get that, a master plan to revamp courses in the professional sector (engineering) would be put in place," said the college professor-turned-CPI(M) Minister in reply to a question in the house.

There are 180 engineering colleges in Kerala which include the state-run and self-financed management ones, according to the Commissioner of Entrance Examination that oversees the conduct of the entrance exam to various professional courses.

Raveendranath's office told IANS that of the 60,000 sanctioned seats in these colleges more than 30,000 seats were lying vacant.

According to official figures, 5.44 per cent of the seats are in the state-run government colleges, 3.06 per cent of the seats in state-aided sector and the remaining seats are in colleges under private management.

Raveendranath informed the assembly that it was time for a major revamp of the professional education sector in the state.

In 2001, the then A.K. Antony government had opened the doors of the professional education sector in Kerala to private players.