Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission 2018 (TNEA) secretary Dr V Rhymend Uthariaraj on Thursday said the counselling for the last batch will be over by second week of August and the colleges will be opened tentatively on September 1. 

A total of 54,957 eligible students who secured marks from 150 to 190 had participated in the three rounds of online counselling, which was also held at Anna University campus and in facilitation centres across the state, he said. 

Out of the total eligible candidates, only 39,125 students have made the payment. The provisional allotment was given to as many as 36,126 candidates according to their choice of the course and college, the secretary added. 

Rhymend said the fourth and penultimate round of counselling for candidates who secured up to 125 marks, were participating in the online counselling from Thursday. According to him, since Tamil Nadu had declared holiday on Wednesday, the TNEA round three confirmation of tentative allotment and round four fee payment is extended up to 12.00 noon of Thursday. Allotted applicants of round three can download their allotment order from Thursday evening. Online choice filing for round four and payment of initial deposit for last round has commenced from Thursday.  All student facilitation centres, where online counselling is being done, will function on all days.

All the remaining eligible candidates in the last batch will be attending final round of counselling from August 14 and the tentative allotment for the last batch of candidates will be announced on August 24.

As the provisional allotment for the remaining candidates will be over on August 24, the Higher Education Department has issued orders that the college for the new admissions should be opened on September 1.