Earlier, the government had announced that online counselling would be held from the next academic year, adding that the students need not travel to Anna University campus in Chennai for this.

“For 21 years now, around one lakh students come to the university for admissions every year. Engineering aspirants from various parts of the state go through the ordeal of travelling to city and finding a place of stay here. They also have to manage the financial expenses associated with it,” the minister said.

For the benefit of applicants who would otherwise be forced to make the trip to the state capital, the government has introduced the TNEA online counselling, starting from this year. While students can apply from home, special centres would also be set up at all districts to help the students who do not have internet facility, Anbalagan added.

In all, 44 TNEA facilitation centres (TFC) covering all the districts in the state would be established by the state government. Each district would have one or more TFCs based on the area of the district and number of applicants. The registration process would commence after the completion of Tamil Nadu Plus 2 examination.

The aspiring students can use the facilitation centre for registering applications, and also to pay the registration fee of Rs 500 through online.

For the counselling, the applicants would be grouped based on their cut-off marks, and each group of applicants would be allowed into the counselling system round wise.