Bhubaneswar, June 13: Counselling for admission into 44,000 engineering seats in eight government and 90 private colleges commenced across the state today.

Despite intermittent rain, students in Bhubaneswar who have cleared the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) were seen thronging various nodal centres. BJB Autonomous College here witnessed a large crowd. Students were here to get their documents verified, lock their preferences and deposit counselling and university registration fees. The 25 nodal centres in the state will function till June 21.

Three other nodal centres in the city are at the Centre for IT education, Central Institute of Plastic Engineering and Technology and College of Engineering and Technology.

For the first time, CCTVs and video recording facilities have been installed at the nodal centres. Also, advertising booths and persons accompanying students were not allowed inside the centres to avoid disturbance. Students under the Biju Patnaik University of Technology have also set up OJEE helpdesks in various colleges to assist students. The desks have data sheets and information regarding the placement, fees, strength and lab facilities of all technical colleges. “This will help students to make a better choice and not fall into the trap of agents,” said student Jitendra Dash.

“This will be beneficial for students coming from remote areas. Similar help desks have been set up in all the 25 nodal centres,” said Samapta Mohanty, another student.

Officials said the provisional allotment list would be out on June 25 and the final list would be published on June 26. Students will report at the final allotted institutes on July 1. “Admissions are going on smoothly at all the centres and no untoward incident have been reported. A team of officials, including secretary C.S. Kumar, visited some of the nodal centres. There will be more such surprise visits to other centres in the coming days,” said OJEE secretary Priyabrata Sahoo.