Bhubaneswar, Nov. 19: Students seeking admissions to MBBS and BDS courses in medical colleges across the state will have to take the All-India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) 2014, scheduled to be conducted on May 4, the technical education department said today.

After the Supreme Court quashed the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), the state government has decided to select students for the state’s seven medical colleges through the AIPMT, conducted by the CBSE.

Last year, the state medical colleges had accepted students based on their scores of NEET, which is conducted by the Medical Council of India. But in July, the apex court quashed the examination.

“Since NEET has been scrapped, we will be now take students through the AIPMT,” said Priyabrata Sahoo, secretary of the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination.

“Students need not take multiple tests. Admissions to the state medical colleges will be done on the basis of a merit list. Counselling will be done by the OJEE, which will set up at four facilitation centres — two in Bhubaneswar and one each in Cuttack and Rourkela,” said Sahoo.

Students can download the application for AIPMT from the last week of December. In its previous editions, the AIPMT was primarily a two-tier test — one preliminary and the other, final. However, in a bid to avoid confusion, the CBSE has decided to make a single examination following the NEET pattern. Odisha has a total of 600 seats for MBBS and 150 seats for BDS programmes. Besides the three government medical colleges — SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur and VSS Medical College and Hospital in Burla — each of which has 150 seats, there are three private medical colleges — Hitech Medical College, the Institute of Medical Science and SUM Hospital and the Kalinga Institue of Medical Science — all in Bhubaneswar. Each of them has 100 seats.