NTA sources said the logistics of the retest will involve the Air Force, and paramilitary forces, as part of a “whole-of-government” approach towards ensuring that the exam is conducted smoothly.

The exam is being conducted at over 5,400 exam centres, a number similar to that on May 3. Security measures at centres include Aadhaar-based biometric authentication and frisking through metal detectors. State governments and district administrations are closely involved in security measures, and GPS-enabled vehicles with police escort are being used to transport exam material, as part of a set of measures that have been in place from NEET-UG 2025 onwards.

The short window between the cancellation and the retest means the NTA has been hard-pressed for time – preparations for the exam, usually held in May, begin over six months ahead of the date. This time, however, the Agency, which announced on May 15 that the exam would be conducted again on June 21, has had to prepare for the retest in 38 days, getting question papers set, translated, printed and transported, and ensuring availability of and security at exam centres all within this span of time.

The CBI inquiry into the alleged paper leak had thrown the spotlight on NTA’s question paper setters and translators, with three subject experts involved in the paper setting process having been arrested so far. With the arrested experts being involved in the translation of questions — apart from English, candidates can choose to give the NEET-UG exam in one of 12 languages – the NTA is learnt to have strengthened its protocol at this level of paper setting and translation to ensure security of questions ahead of the retest.

Ahead of the high-stakes exam scheduled to be conducted on Sunday, the Centre has also blocked access to Telegram across the country, on the grounds that the messaging platform was being used by “cheating rackets” ahead of the retest. While the app has been blocked till June 22, the platform’s message editing feature will not be available till June 30.

Candidates will get an additional 15 minutes as part of the retest, which will be held from 2 pm to 5.15 pm, unlike the original exam which ended at 5 pm.

Meanwhile, after reports surfaced of a NEET candidate in Nagpur being allotted an exam centre in Abu Dhabi when admit cards were issued earlier this week, the NTA said in a statement on Saturday that an examination city correction window was available to candidates and “NTA’s web-activity records indicate that the city change in this case was made through the candidate’s own registered login during the open correction window, with a consistent single-user access pattern.”

“Despite the Abu Dhabi centre being chosen by the candidate, the NTA received an informal request on the evening of June 19 (just 48 hours before the exam) to change the centre to Nagpur. NTA personnel immediately initiated the change and contacted the candidate’s father on 19th evening itself to help them complete the formal process,” the Agency said, adding: “NTA has observed that on 3 occasions, one – the centre was changed to Abu Dhabi using candidate’s credentials and twice it was previewed that the centre is Abu Dhabi. Despite that NTA has accorded to the aspirant’s request and the change of centre was actioned.”

The exam, the largest that the NTA conducts in a single shift on a single day, is administered in pen-and-paper mode. Soon after the cancellation of the exam last month, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had announced that the exam would shift to computer-based mode next year onwards.