West Bengal Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim opened a three-day pre-counselling fair for online admission to engineering and technical institutes on August 17.
According to an official, the fair, which is run by the Association of Professional Academic Institutions, is being hosted in hybrid format this year, allowing students to attend sessions both in person and virtually.
Hakim, who is also the mayor of Kolkata, inaugurated the fair at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here. Speaking at the inauguration, state Minister for Industries, Commerce and Enterprise Sashi Panja said, “West Bengal has always focused on quality education and such initiatives will help in educating more and more youths about newer courses and career choices.”
“Students can physically visit the fair and directly interact with their choice of college representatives or enjoy interacting with the college representatives on all three days from elsewhere and also book free online counselling with the college of their choice. 10 minutes will be allotted to each student who wants to attend it in virtual mode,” Satyam Roy Chowdhury, General Secretary APAI said.
Over 34,000 seats available in the colleges
Roy Chowdhury added that “35 per cent of students studying engineering are coming from outside Bengal, so the online mode of interaction will be of immense benefit for them. There are over 34,000 seats available in the engineering and technical colleges in the state. The counselling in connection with the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examinations will start from the third week of August and continue till September.”
Sardar Taranjit Singh, President of APAI said: “There will be scholarship facilities for 50 students on each day of the fair through a lottery. Students getting the scholarship will be offered a discount of Rs 10000 in their course fees.”
