JEE Main 2026: NIT BTech mechanical engineering cut-offs and rank variations across institutes

The JEE Main cut-off ranks for BTech Mechanical Engineering (ME) at the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) under the home state (HS) open category show wide variations across institutes, according to the final round of Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) counselling. NTA JEE Main 2026 LIVE: Session 1 from tomorrow

Among the top NITs, competition remained intense. NIT Surathkal closed at a rank of 12,126, while NIT Tiruchirappalli and NIT Warangal closed at 14,978 and 17,643, respectively. MNIT Jaipur recorded a closing rank of 19,756, reflecting sustained demand for the core engineering branch.

In the gender-neutral category, NIT Allahabad closed at a rank of 21,070, VNIT Nagpur at 21,761, and NIT Jalandhar at 46,722. NIT Manipur recorded a closing rank of over 5.29 lakhs, while NIT Mizoram closed at a rank exceeding 13 lakhs. NIT Arunachal Pradesh and NIT Sikkim also saw high cut-off ranks.

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NIT fees, placement trends

The tuition fees for general category students at National Institutes of Technology (NITs) typically range from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh per year. With hostel and mess charges adding another Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000, the total annual cost comes to approximately Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh. Fee waivers or scholarships are often provided for Scheduled Caste (SC)/Scheduled Tribe (ST) and differently-abled students.

Top NITs like Trichy, Surathkal, Warangal, Rourkela, and Jaipur have a placement rate of 90–100%. The average salary here ranges from Rs 8–12 lakhs per annum, with the highest salary packages reaching Rs 40–50 lakhs per annum from companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google.

Mid-tier NITs such as Jalandhar, Allahabad, Kozhikode, and Durgapur offer 80–95% placements. Here, average salary packages of Rs 6–8 lakhs per annum are offered by companies like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and Bosch.

Newer NITs like Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, and Sikkim have 60–80% placements with average salaries of Rs 4–6 LPA.

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JoSAA counselling 2026

The Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) will hold a combined counselling for admission to 127 technical institutes, including 31 NITs, 26 IIITs, 23 IITs, and other participating colleges.

JoSAA counselling for NIT admissions will start only after the JEE Advanced 2026 results are announced. Only candidates who rank in the top 2.5 lakh and want to join IITs need to take JEE Advanced 2026.

In NIT JoSAA counselling, generally 50% of seats are reserved for Home State (HS) candidates and 50% for Other State (OS) candidates. Within each category, seats are further divided based on gender (gender-neutral and female-only) and reservation categories such as SC, ST, OBC, EWS, and PwD.

JEE Main 2026: NIT cut-off percentile

Candidates can check the JEE Main cut-off for BTech Mechanical Engineering (ME) at NITs under the Home State (HS) open category in round 6 of JoSAA counselling.

NIT Nagaland has no Home State quota. The OS closing rank is 56813 for the gender-neutral category and 75126 for the female supernumerary category.

At NIT Srinagar, seats are allotted under JK, OS, and LA categories. The JK closing rank is 1,08,745 for gender-neutral and 1,54,271 for female supernumerary candidates.