CHENNAI: The single window system of counselling may have failed to fill up the vacant pool of seats in engineering colleges, but that has not stopped engineering colleges in the State from increasing seat intake by almost 10,000 numbers this year.

In a move that has caused surprise among academic circles, the institutions have scaled their intake after counselling closed, with the AICTE granting permission for new courses and more seats in existing courses.

A total of of 10,011 seats have been added in B.E. and B.Tech courses and 813 seats in M.E. & M.Tech courses. Also, there has been an additional intake of 1,500 seats in M.B.A programmes and 780 seats in MCA courses. Most of the new seats are in branches such as aeronautical engineering and civil engineering.

With this, the total number of engineering seats in Tamil Nadu has crossed one lakh this year, the highest ever for any State in the country.

The State now has 92,113 seats in undergraduate courses offered by almost 238 self-financing engineering colleges.

An analysis by Salem-based analyst Jayaprakash Gandhi shows that four colleges-- Kongu Engineering College, PSG College of Engineering, Rajalakshmi Engineering College and St. Peters Engineering College--have an intake of more than 1,000 students every year, which includes those in post graduate courses.

Eleven colleges which have an intake of more than 750 students are: Adhiyamaan College of engineering, Amirtha Institute of Technology and Science, Arul Mighu Kalasalingam College of Engineering, Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Hindustan College of Engineering and Technology, Kumaraguru College of Technology, PSNA College of Engineering and Technology, Sona College of Technology, Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, St. Joseph College of Engineering and Velammal Engineering College.

With 13 new self-financing colleges contributing an additional 3.120 undergraduate seats, an additional 9,003 seats were available.

This was after a reduction of 3,120 seats by some colleges.

Anna University authorities said, despite more engineering seats falling vacant every year, the addition of new seats had been caused as the AICTE had given permission for the same.

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