Officials of the district administration, AIEEE representatives and heads of institutions attend a meeting in Rourkela. Picture by Uttam Kumar Pal

Bhubaneswar, April 24: Students travelling to Rourkela to appear for the All India Engineering Entrance Exam (AIEEE) scheduled for April 29 might have to face some inconvenience in terms of accommodation facilities.

This year, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), which conducts the all-India test, has decided to have exam centres only in the steel city for the 16,750 candidates.

Unlike earlier, Bhubaneswar has been removed from the list of centres.

While the authorities are expecting that most students will arrive on the day of the test and return on the same day, the possibility of students and their guardians, especially from far-off places, preferring to reach the city a day in advance cannot be ruled out. In such cases, the students will have to face lodging inconvenience.

This issue was discussed at a meeting at the district magistrate’s office yesterday evening.

“Every year, 5,000 students come to Rourkela for the test but this time, we have to take care of an additional 10,000 students. As the city does not have adequate number of hotels, students and parents planning to stay overnight might face problems. However, we are trying to make the best possible arrangements,” said additional district magistrate P.C. Pathi.

Authorities in charge of the arrangements for the entrance exam have said that students planning to stay in Rourkela must take care of accommodation on their own.

“All the hotels in the city have already been booked. It will be very difficult if the students come here without making any arrangements beforehand,” said AIEEE coordinator, Siddharth Rath.

Pathi said they have contacted Gurudwaras and social homes, including dharmashalas, to arrange for accommodation as required.

Rath said: “Though we are not sure of the quality of accommodation they will provide, we have requested about 12 social homes to make the arrangements.”

Incidentally, the reason behind striking off Bhubaneswar from its list of centres is to encourage candidates to appear for the test online.

However, students in Odisha have shown a preference for the offline test. While the offline exam in Rourkela is slated for April 29, the online version will be held multiple times over four days in the month of May.

The authorities, however, are making special arrangements for the convenience of the examinees. “We have arranged for three control rooms at Sector II bus stand, new bus stand and railway station. These rooms will have an attached cloak room where students can keep their bags,” Rath said.

From these three destinations, the candidates can board buses that will be available every five to 10 minutes to take them to the 29 exam centres.

“We will press into service about 50 school buses. This will check harassment at the hands of public service vehicles. The candidates would have to pay a nominal sum of Rs 10 as bus fare,” Rath added.