GATE 2027 in Salem: IIT Madras Zone, Back-up Cities and Bengaluru

The official exam-city page has a single entry, "Salem", under Tamil Nadu (spelt "Tamilnadu" there) in the IIT Madras zone. It names the city only. Your centre, which may be a college or a test hall anywhere in or around the city, comes with the admit card.

It helps to know how the map was redrawn. The Salem district site records that Dharmapuri district, with the Hosur and Krishnagiri taluks, was split off in 1965, and Namakkal district in 1997. The Krishnagiri district site adds that Krishnagiri was carved out of Dharmapuri in 2004. Today Salem district has four revenue divisions and 14 taluks, among them Mettur, Attur, Omalur and Yercaud.

Why this matters for GATE: of those old pieces, Namakkal and Krishnagiri are exam cities on the list, both in the IIT Madras zone. Dharmapuri and Hosur are not on the list at all. If you live in Attur, Mettur or Omalur, Salem is the entry you are looking for; the list has no separate name for those towns.

The list is tentative. GATE may add or remove a city, and may allot one outside your six choices. GATE 2027 is held only in India.

If you will be working in Bengaluru by February, this is the one decision to get right on your form.

The rule on the official page: you pick six cities, and all six must be from the same zone. Bengaluru North and Bengaluru South are IISc zone, like every Karnataka city on the list, including Kolar and Chikkballapur close to the Tamil Nadu border. Salem is IIT Madras zone. So the form can hold Salem or Bengaluru, never both.

Two clean choices:

1. You will be home in Salem for the exam weekend. Build an all-IIT Madras list (next section).
2. You will be in Bengaluru and cannot travel. Build an all-IISc list. The Bengaluru page covers that side, and Salem drops off entirely.

The Hosur corridor is where people slip. Krishnagiri is on the list and is IIT Madras zone. Hosur is not on the list. Do not assume that a Hosur address makes Bengaluru a natural partner for Salem on the form.

The same trap runs west. Palakkad, Thrissur and Kozhikode in Kerala are IISc zone, although Coimbatore and Pollachi are IIT Madras.

Every city below is in the IIT Madras zone, so any mix of them is valid. Order them by how easily you can reach each one early on an exam morning, and by where you have a relative or a friend's room for the night before.

Choice	Exam city	Note
1	Salem	home
2	Namakkal	part of Salem district until 1997
3	Erode	same zone
4	Krishnagiri	the district that includes Hosur
5	Tiruchirappalli	useful if your college is there
6	Coimbatore or Tiruvannamalai	whichever side your family is on

Dindigul, Ooty and Pollachi are further same-zone options. Chennai North and Chennai South also work if you will be in Chennai in February, though at that point Vellore and Kanchipuram belong on the list too; the Chennai page has that set.

The Coimbatore and Tiruchirappalli pages give the view from the other end of these routes.

The official important-dates page currently shows:

What	When
Last day to fix a scrutiny defect in your application, no fee	30 November 2026 (Monday)
Data correction on candidate request, with fee	TBA
City allotment notification	4 January 2027
Admit card	TBA
Exams	6, 7, 13, 14, 20 and 21 February 2027
Result	19 March 2027

The defect deadline was 31 October and then 3 November before this extension, so if GATE flagged a defect in your application, log in and clear it now. GATE notes that all dates may change.

Once the admit card is out, look up the centre and work out the route the same evening. If the allotment is Krishnagiri or Tiruchirappalli rather than Salem, reach the night before a forenoon paper. Carry the printed admit card, the original photo ID you gave in the application, and whatever else the admit card lists.

If you take both DA and CS, which is an allowed two-paper pair, the official page says the second paper's centre may be different but will be in the same city.

Questions about the Salem exam city go to the IIT Madras zone office, which is also the organising institute this year: helpdesk@gate.iitm.ac.in, 044-22578200. Write from your registered email and quote your enrolment ID.

None of the institutes with a GATEiit page is in Salem. The ones most students here look at first:

• NIT Tiruchirappalli, in Tiruchirappalli
• IIT Madras, in Chennai
• IIIT Tiruchirappalli, in Tiruchirappalli
• Anna University, in Chennai

Across the border, IIT Palakkad and IISc Bengaluru are close enough to be on a shortlist. Each page explains that institute's GATE routes for DA and CSE candidates; the full list is on /institutes.

Your exam city plays no part in where you can apply, so choose it on travel grounds alone.

GATEiit is a free online site. It has no centre, office or classes in Salem or anywhere else.

Start on your paper's page: GATE DA for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, or GATE CSE for Computer Science and Information Technology. Each has the syllabus and a link to that paper's WhatsApp group, which is useful if no one in your college is writing the same paper.

Then work through previous papers on /pyq and topic sets on /practice. The GATE DA 2027 guide and the GATE CSE 2027 guide lay out a plan, and /guides has single-topic notes. All six exam days fall on Saturdays and Sundays, so sit full mocks on weekend mornings at the same hour as your session.

For the wider picture see GATE 2027 and the exam-city overview.