GATE 2027 in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad): Exam City and Zone

If you grew up calling it Aurangabad, you are looking for the right city. The official GATE 2027 exam-city page lists it as "Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (Aurangabad)": the new name, written as three words, with the old name in brackets. It sits alphabetically between Chandrapur and Dhule, under C, not under A.

The government now uses the new name. The district administration's site calls itself District Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, written as one word. The Maharashtra Tourism department describes it as formerly Aurangabad district, renamed in honour of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, son of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. The Directorate General Defence Estates lists a notification dated 2 September 2025 renaming Aurangabad Cantonment as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Cantonment.

Two practical points. The old name has not vanished: the district's own how-to-reach page gives the railway station code as AWB, and older notices on the district site still say Aurangabad. And the spelling differs between sources, Sambhaji Nagar on the GATE list and Sambhajinagar on the district site. They are the same city. When you fill the form, pick the exact entry GATE shows.

The district site lists ten talukas: Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Urban), Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Rural), Sillod, Soegaon, Vaijapur, Gangapur, Paithan, Phulambri, Kannad and Khultabad. None of them has its own exam-city name, and neither do neighbouring Jalna or Beed. A student from Paithan or Sillod writes either in the city or in another district's entry.

You choose the city; GATE chooses the centre and prints it on the admit card. The list is tentative, GATE may add or drop a city or allot one outside your choices, and GATE 2027 is held only in India.

All six choices must come from one zone. Every one of Maharashtra's 22 entries is IIT Bombay zone, so any Maharashtra city is safe to combine with this one.

The district site names Nashik, Pune, Ahmednagar, Jalna, Beed and Mumbai among the places the city has road links to, and National Highway 211 from Dhule to Solapur runs through it. Of those, the ones on the list are your natural back-ups:

1. Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (Aurangabad)
2. Ahilyanagar (Ahmednagar)
3. Nashik
4. Jalgaon or Dhule, if home is closer to either
5. Latur or Nanded, if your family lives there
6. Pune or Mumbai - Thane, if you have somewhere to stay

Solapur - Pandharpur and Akola are further options in the same zone. Order them by where you can sleep the night before, since GATE can allot any of the six.

According to the district site, the city's station is on the Secunderabad-Manmad section of South Central Railway's Nanded Division, with trains to Nizamabad, Hyderabad, Kurnool, Bhopal and Gwalior among others. Easy to reach is not the same as same zone. On the GATE list, these cities are in other zones:

City	Zone on the official list
Hyderabad	IISc
Bidar, Kalaburagi	IISc
Kurnool	IISc
Nizamabad, Adilabad	IIT Madras
Indore	IIT Delhi
Bhopal, Gwalior	IIT Kanpur

Choose Hyderabad and your whole form moves to the IISc zone; Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (Aurangabad) cannot stay on it. Settle where you will physically be in February first. The Hyderabad page covers the IISc side.

Exam-city questions go to the IIT Bombay zone office, not to IIT Madras, which organises GATE 2027:

• IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai – 400 076: gateoffice@iitb.ac.in, 022-25767068, 022-25767022

Write from your registered email ID with your enrolment ID. Application queries go to helpdesk@gate.iitm.ac.in, 044-22578200.

The important dates page shows the scrutiny-defect rectification window closing on 30 November 2026, after two extensions. The data correction window is TBA, so treat your city order as fixed for now. City allotment is due on 4 January 2027; the admit card date is TBA.

Papers fall on 6 and 7, 13 and 14, and 20 and 21 February 2027, all Saturdays and Sundays.

If you are coming from outside, the district site places the airport at Chikalthana, about 10 km east of the town, and lists the station on the Secunderabad-Manmad line. Neither tells you where your centre is, and centres can be on the city's edges. Look it up the day the admit card appears and work out your route from where you will stay.

If GATE allots you Nashik or Ahilyanagar (Ahmednagar), go the evening before. Writing DA and CS together? The two-paper page says the second paper's centre may be different, though in the same city. Carry the printed admit card, the original photo ID entered in your application, and whatever else the admit card lists.

No institute with a GATEiit page is in the city. The Maharashtra ones are in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur: IIT Bombay at Powai, IIIT Pune at Talegaon, DIAT Pune at Girinagar and VNIT Nagpur on South Ambazari Road. IIT Hyderabad is the nearest page on the Telangana side. Each page explains that institute's GATE routes; /institutes has the rest. Where you write the exam has no effect on admission.

GATEiit is an online site with no centre or office here, and its material is free. Choose your paper on GATE DA or GATE CSE; each page has the syllabus and the WhatsApp group for doubts. Then use /pyq for previous papers, /practice for topic sets, and the GATE DA 2027 guide or GATE CSE 2027 guide for a plan. The Nashik and Pune pages cover your nearest back-ups.