HYDERABAD: The number of engineering seats in Telanganaobserved a rise this year with the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTU-H) granting affiliation to 169 colleges against 174 granted last year. As against 81,186 seats available to candidates during 2017-18 academic year, there are 84,124 seats up for grabs this time around.
These revised figures were released by the Eamcet convenor, Navin Mittal, convenr of Telangana engineering, agriculture and medical common entrance test on Sunday.

Over and above the JNTUH colleges, 11 engineering colleges affiliated to Osmania University, with an approved intake of 6,260 seats, and four colleges affiliated to Kakatiya University with 1,800 seats, will also be on offer.
Together, the total number of seats across all colleges affiliated to various universities in the state this year is 95,235, of which 64,566 are earmarked for the convenor quota and 30,669 for the management quota.

Owing to revision, for the first time in the last many years, the number of engineering seats on offer in the state are slightly higher than the number of qualified candidates unlike last year, where the number of seats were lower. This year, 94,592 qualified in the engineering stream and will be eligible to choose web options Monday onwards.

Although the number of affiliated colleges has observed a drop this year, officials attribute the rise in number of seats to few colleges fulfilling the norms this year. “Last year, we did not grant permission to few branches in existing colleges due to some shortcomings such as lack of PhD qualified teachers etc. This year, the colleges have fulfilled these norms and secured permissions resulting in rise in number of seats,” said N Yadaiah, registrar of JNTUH.

On the contrary, the number of engineering colleges being granted the All India Council of Technical Education’s nod increased this year. This year, 228 colleges with an intake of 1,14,247 were granted AICTE approval as opposed to 181 colleges with an intake of 84,497 approved last year.