Chennai: The schedule for engineering admissions counselling in Tamil Nadu is likely to be delayed as the National Testing Agency (NTA) is set to conduct the NEET-UG re-test on June 21, officials said on Saturday.

Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) 2026 is being conducted entirely through an online process, including registration, fee payment, choice filling, seat allotment and confirmation of admissions.

The Directorate of Technical Education (DOTE) under the Higher Education Department received applications from May 3 to June 5.

A senior DOTE official said more than 3.02 lakh candidates had registered for TNEA, of whom 2,45,220 had uploaded their certificates for verification.

As the NEET-UG re-test is scheduled for June 21, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is yet to approve the engineering counselling schedule, the official said.

"Certificate verification has already commenced. The rank list will be published on June 29 as scheduled," he said.

The official added that counselling could begin only after completion of the certificate verification process.

Higher Education Minister P Viswanathan said a decision on whether to postpone the counselling schedule would be taken within the next couple of days.

The minister said he would hold consultations with the department secretary before announcing the revised counselling schedule.