File picture of medical students at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack

Bhubaneswar, June 24: Rank holders of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET)-2013 can start registering themselves for medical counselling from June 25 onwards.

The process will continue till July 7 and the counselling will be conducted centrally in the state capital.

“More than 11,000 medical aspirants from Odisha qualified NEET, which was held for the first time this year. They can register on www.ojee.nic.in,” said an official, adding that 25,000-odd candidates from the state had appeared for the common entrance test, which covers admissions to MBBS and BDS courses across the country.

Eighty-five per cent of the total seats in medical colleges of Odisha are reserved for domicile candidates and will be filled up through counselling by the Directorate of Medical Education and Training. The rest will be reserved for all-India candidates to be selected through centralised counselling. Admissions will be based on a percentile basis.

“Candidates will be informed about admission fees and other details before the counselling begins,” said technical education secretary C.S. Kumar.

There are a total of 850 MBBS seats and 200 BDS seats in the government as well as private medical institutes here. Each of the three government medical colleges in the state — SCB at Cuttack, MKCG at Berhampur and VSS at Burla — has 150 seats. The privately-run Hi-Tech has 100 seats each at its Bhubaneswar and Rourkela branches.

The Institute of Medical Sciences and Sum Hospital under SoA University and Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (Kims) under KIIT University, both in the state capital, have an intake capacity of 100. Similarly, there are 100 seats at Kims, and 50 seats each at Gandhi Dental College, Bhubaneswar and SCB Dental College, Cuttack.

However, authorities of KIIT and SoA, who had moved the court to allow them to admit students through their respective entrance tests, said they had received permission to do so.

“The court has allowed us to conduct our own admissions for MBBS and BDS courses at least for this year,” said SoA University sources.

NEET does not include admissions to the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune and Postgraduate Institute for Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh as the institutes were created by separate laws.