INICET candidates report portal crash and test center remoteness

NEW DELHI: Thousands of postgraduate medical students appearing for the Institutes of National Importance Combined Entrance Test (INI-CET) in May 2026 said admit card admission and allotment of exam centers hundreds of kilometers away are being delayed, just a week away from the May 16 exam.The admission tickets for the AIIMS exam in Delhi were released around 3 pm on May 9, but candidates said the website slowed down or crashed soon, leaving many unable to download their venue tickets for nearly 9 to 10 hours. Some students said they could only access the portal after midnight, prompting a flood of complaints on social media.“You charged Rs 4,000 for the application form and still the website crashed for hours,” Dr Aman Kumar (@manish__aman) tweeted.According to AIIMS officials, heavy traffic due to simultaneous logins temporarily slowed down the portal. “If a billion people visit any website at the same time, it may slow down or crash. This happens for many exams, including NEET. The website is now functioning well and candidates have been able to download their admit cards,” officials said.Candidates also marked the allotment of remote examination centres. Applicants from large states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan said they were allotted centers 500 to 800 kilometers away as INI-CET collects only preferences from states and not cities during registration.A candidate from Agra said she was posted in Varanasi, about 650 km away, while a candidate from Mumbai claimed she was based in Nanded, adding to travel costs and logistical difficulties. Students say traveling within states like Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan can take 12 to 24 hours, and with a gap of seven days between issuance of admit cards and exams, there is little time to book trains or flights.“There are hundreds of such cases,” said a candidate, who urged AIIMS to review the center allotment process.Regarding complaints about remote centres, AIIMS officials said allotment depends on seat availability and preference pattern, adding that candidates are asked to fill state and not city preferences to prevent possible malpractice in allotment of centres. “Our effort is always to allot the nearest centers possible, but in large states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, some candidates may still opt for centers 500-800 km away if nearby seats are filled,” officials said.Dr. Naval K. Vikram, deputy director of examinations at AIIMS, Delhi, said that around 95,000 candidates have been granted first or second preference status and more than 1 lakh candidates will appear for the examination this year. As of Sunday, nearly 96,000 admission tickets had been downloaded, he said.INI-CET is held twice every year in May and November for admission to postgraduate courses at AIIMS and other nationally important institutions across the country.