Mumbai: Competition for engineering seats in Maharashtra is expected to intensify this year, with a record 2,45,526 students completing registration for the 2026-27 admission process.Data from the state CET cell shows that the number of confirmed applicants has risen by 20,083 from last year, when 2,25,443 students had registered. Compared with 2024-25, when registrations stood at 1,92,398, the increase is even sharper at 53,128 students.The registration window for the Centralised Admission Process, conducted by the CET cell, closed on Sunday. While 2,66,024 candidates initially registered, 2,45,526 completed document verification and confirmed their application forms. Only candidates who have completed this process will be considered for the CAP rounds.The sharp rise in applicants is likely to push up cut-offs, particularly in sought-after branches such as computer engineering, information technology, artificial intelligence, data science and allied courses.The increase has also brought some relief to engineering colleges, many of which struggled with vacant seats in recent years. Falling enrolment had made it difficult for several institutions to sustain courses with poor demand.The situation began improving last year, when 1.6 lakh of the 2.02 lakh available engineering seats were filled. In 2024-25, colleges admitted 1.5 lakh students against 1.8 lakh seats, while in 2023-24, only 1.2 lakh admissions were recorded against 1.6 lakh available seats.College administrators now expect the higher registration numbers to reduce vacancies this year. However, the increase may not benefit all branches equally, as students continue to cluster around computer-related programmes while traditional branches struggle to attract candidates.The provisional merit list will be declared on July 22. Students will be allowed to submit grievances between July 23 and July 25, after which the final merit list and the category-wise seat matrix for the first CAP round will be published on July 27.Candidates may submit and confirm their college and course preferences from July 28 to July 30. The first provisional seat-allotment list will be announced on Aug 2, and selected students will have until Aug 5 to accept their seats and complete admission formalities. The second CAP round will begin on Aug 7.
