National Institute of Technology Rourkela (NIT Rourkela) has been entrusted the responsibility of coordinating Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB 2025) for the academic year 2025-26, facilitating admissions of Indian Nationals to undergraduate programs at 31 NITs, 1 IIEST, 26 IIITs, 3 Schools of Planning and Architecture (SPAs), and 36 Other Government Funded Technical Institutes (GFTIs) under the umbrella of the ‘NIT+ System.’
While NIT Rourkela will lead the NIT+ System, IIT Kanpur will lead the IIT System, and both these institutes will co-host the 2025 edition of Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA). Activities of JoSAA 2025 shall commence in the first week of June 2025. Aspiring candidates are advised to visit websites https://josaa.nic.in and https://csab.nic.in for further details. NIT Rourkela confirmed that there shall be six rounds of seat allocation in the 2025 edition of JoSAA.
Like previous years, CSAB shall also organise CSAB-Special rounds of seat allocation to fill the vacant seats resulting after all rounds of JoSAA 2025. This year, CSAB-Special will be of three rounds. CSAB will coordinate the Supernumerary Round of seat allocation for students from Union Territories such as Andaman & Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli in selected NITs.
In a notable development, NIT Rourkela has also been entrusted by MoE to coordinate the Direct Admission of Students Abroad (DASA) 2025 for the admission of Foreign Nationals to undergraduate programs in NIT+ System
In his message to the aspirants, Prof. K. Umamaheshwar Rao, Director, NIT Rourkela, and Chairperson, CSAB & DASA 2025, said, “CSAB 2025 is designed to offer a seamless, transparent, and inclusive seat allocation process for JEE (Main) qualified candidates across the nation. Simultaneously, DASA 2025 underscores our continued commitment to welcoming international students to India’s leading technical institutions. With strong digital systems, multilingual assistance, and dedicated accessibility initiatives, we are focused on ensuring a smooth and student-centric admission experience for all aspirants, domestic and international alike.”
NIT Rourkela has also confirmed that CSAB-NEUT rounds for candidates from North-East States and select Union Territories will begin in June 2025, under AICTE’s reservation scheme for regions lacking such facilities.
It is estimated that over 14.5 lakh JEE (Main) qualified candidates will be competing for approximately 40000 seats across all the participating institutes, including 20% seats reserved for female candidates. The entire seat allocation process, from registration and choice filling to seat allotment and document verification, will be conducted online.
DASA 2025 Registration and Process
DASA seat allotment will be based on JEE (Main) ranks and preferences. The process will include three rounds of seat allotment, the details of which shall be available at the DASA website: www.dasanit.org
Apart from the standard government norms, the seat allocation in all the above schemes for UG admission to NIT+ System will be based on the ranks secured by the candidates in JEE (Main) 2025.
Explaining the importance of CSAB, Prof. Anindya Basu, Chairperson, Local Organizing Committee, CSAB 2025, said, “The CSAB and DASA frameworks are designed not just as admission mechanisms, but as enablers of opportunity. CSAB opens doors for students from every corner of India to pursue quality technical education, while DASA extends that opportunity to international aspirants. The use of multilingual helpdesks and support centers across the country further reflects our student-first approach in managing one of the largest engineering admission processes in the world.”
Candidate Support and Accessibility
A multi-lingual helpdesk in Assamese, Bengali, English, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, and Telugu languages has been established at the CSAB 2025 headquarters at NIT Rourkela to assist the candidates during the entire process of CSAB 2025. In addition, a total of 53 Help Centers (at least one in each State/ UTs) have also been established to assist the candidates.
A dedicated helpdesk at NIT Rourkela will also be operational to support Divyang (PwD) aspirants. Furthermore, help documents in immersive reader format will soon be made available to enhance accessibility for PwD candidates.