The relocation of national-type Tamil schools (SJKT) from estate to urban areas is expected to complete in five to 10 years' time, said MIC president Datuk Seri Dr S.Subramaniam.

Datuk Seri Dr Subramaniam, who is also Health Minister, said for the ongoing first phase, the focus was to relocate 60 schools with less than 25 pupils to urban areas.

"Right now, there are SJKTs in urban areas with 2,000 pupils, which is clearly quite congested, and at the same time, we have SJKTs in estates without any students.

"So, those schools without students have to be relocated to urban areas," he told reporters after officiating the new building for SJKT West Country (West) here Sunday.

He said the relocation process was in line with the move of Indian community out of estate areas to major cities and new townships.

Datuk Seri Dr Subramaniam said apart from the relocation process, the quality of education at SJKTs was now getting better with 70 percent of its teachers were university graduates.

On the newly-launched school building, he said the government had allocated RM2.98 billion for the construction of the three-storey building with 12 classrooms.

"This school has 117 pupils and the numbers is expected to grow from time to time with massive development in its surrounding areas," he added.

According to previous media reports, the government had allocated a total of RM740 million specifically for development, renovation and maintenance for all SJKTs nationwide since 2010.

The upgrading works at SJKT West Country was the first of its kind for Tamil schools in the country.

It opened its door to children of West Country Estate in 1967.