BHUBANESWAR: While over 45,000 engineering seats are lying vacant in around 100 colleges across the State, Odisha JEE officials and college authorities are optimistic of more students opting for BTech courses this year than the previous academic session.
After Orissa High Court granted permission for conducting Special OJEE, more than 10,000 aspirants have registered for the entrance test which was held on Sunday. The colleges offering BTech courses are keenly waiting for announcement of the dates for second counselling of JEE Main. Out of 48,000 candidates who appeared at JEE Main, 45,000 had qualified with ranks.
“Thousands of students from remote districts and other States were unable to attend the first counselling of JEE Main because of which only 12,600 candidates locked colleges of their choice,” an OJEE official said.
Students who have locked choices in the first phase counselling would be allotted temporary seats on July 20, while the final seat allotment would be declared on July 25. The admission process would commence in the first week of August, sources said.
Several vacant seats would be filled up under management quota which comprises 10 per cent of total seats in a college.
This apart, with the recent High Court order to relax lateral entry admissions, more than 12,000 vacant seats in second year would be filled up.
While 25,000 second year seats are vacant in colleges, 16,000 students who qualified OJEE Main for lateral entry would be benefited by the court order, Odisha Private Engineering College Association (OPECA) secretary Binod Dash said.