Calcutta, Nov. 28: Private engineering colleges will not be allowed to hike fees for the 2006-2007 academic session if their infrastructure fail the government’s fitness test.

The government has also decided to divide the 55-odd private technical colleges into three categories, A, B, and C.

The fees would depend on the category to which a particular institution is placed.

The government had earlier spelt out its intent to monitor performances of the self-financing institutions, many of who do not allegedly provide the facilities they promise.

Now, there is a single fee structure for all self-financing colleges ? Rs 32,000 a year, irrespective of the facilities they provide.

According to the government’s plan, the performance of the institutions in terms of results, placements and infrastructure will be taken into account while categorising them. The best will make it to the A list.

“A committee set up by the government at the insistence of the Supreme Court is working on the review. It has also been asked to divide the institutions into three categories and the process of collecting relevant data from the institutions has already begun,” said a senior higher education department official overseeing the functioning of private engineering colleges.

The committee was set up early this year in compliance with the Supreme Court directive saying that every state government should review the fees of self-financing colleges at regular intervals to find out if any revision was needed.

“The committee is expected to submit its report in January. We will make our recommendations after getting the report and the colleges will be asked to revise their fees on the basis of the government’s final assessment,” said Manotosh Biswas, a senior official of the higher education department.

The committee was supposed to submit the report this month. But the deadline was extended till January-end to enable it to complete the additional task of dividing the institutions into three categories. In its original terms and conditions, the committee was only asked to suggest a revision of fee structures, education department sources said.