Engineering counselling likely from July 27

HYDERABAD: Counselling for admissions into engineering colleges is likely to commence from July 27 or 28 for the academic year of 2011-12.  The officials are planning to complete the counselling process before August 15 and ensure commencement of classes for first year students from August 16.  However, the final schedule is expected to be announced officially on July 18.According to sources, the officials of EAMCET 2011 held a meeting here on Saturday and have tentatively decided to conduct counselling from July 27 or 28.  Initially, the verification of certificates and other documents of students will be conducted for the first three days and students will be asked to submit their options seeking admission into different courses in various colleges for counselling.  Later, they will be allotted a seat based on their ranks. "If required, we will examine the proposal for conducting second phase of counselling," said an official.In all, there are about 2.7 lakh seats available in 707 engineering colleges in the State.  The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has sanctioned permission for seven more colleges with an intake of about 2,100 students apart from approving about 25,000 seats in the existing colleges.  However, there are only 2.07 lakh students who qualified in the EAMCET 2011 and intermediate examinations.