Engineering entrance examination candidates take rest under the shade of a tree and (below) have lunch at a camp organised by volunteers in Rourkela on Sunday. Pictures by Uttam Kumar Pal

Rourkela, April 29: This city struggled to play host to more than 16,000 students who were here to take the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) — 2011 today.

This year, Rourkela was the sole centre in Odisha for AIEEE candidates who took the traditional pen-and-paper test. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had earlier struck off Bhubaneswar from its list of examination centres to encourage the online test mode.

However, as many as 16,750 students had applied for the AIEEE offline mode this year that was held at 29 centres of the city today. In the last three days, students not just from different parts of the state, but also from Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Dehra Dun, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Gujarat had come to Rourkela to take the test.

On April 25, The Telegraph had reported how Rourkela was witnessing a scramble for its limited boarding facilities. Since most hotels, guesthouses, lodges and other temporary accommodation facilities had been booked by many outstation candidates in advance, many students who could not get a room and did not have anywhere else in the city to put up, were forced to spend nights at the railway station.

“Generally, we do not allow anyone to sleep on the station’s balcony except for beggars who are permanent squatters. But this time, we had to throw open the balcony to the outstation students as they had no place to stay in the city. We let them sleep at the station and use the washroom,” said a constable posted at Rourkela railway station.

Guesthouses in and around the railway station benefited the most from the arrival of the outstation candidates. Many guesthouses, which usually charge Rs 100 a day, were letting out rooms at 10 times the usual rent. Two candidates from Dehra Dun said they paid as much as Rs 3,000 for a three-day stay.

Anticipating the difficulties the outstation examinees would face, Rourkela Municipality, the youth wing of Biju Janata Dal and the Marwari Yuva Manch swung into action. While the municipality had set up helplines at many places and was providing water pouches to the students, the Manch was distributing food packets for Rs 15.

The youth wing of BJD had also posted its volunteers at several important places to help outstation candidates. “We had to spend the first night at the railway station. But then, the volunteers came to our rescue and provided us with a shelter,” said A. Satpathy, who had come from Jajpur for his daughter’s exam.