Hyderabad, May 10 (IANS): Engineering, Agriculture and Medical Common Entrance Test (EAMCET) for admission to engineering and medical colleges in Andhra Pradesh began amid tight security arrangements across the state Friday morning.

In all, 3,96,143 candidates are appearing in the annual exam at 735 centres. Officials said 2,91,078 students were writing the three-hour engineering test that began at 10 a.m.

As many as 1,05,065 students were registered for the medicine test, which facilitates entrance to the state's agriculture colleges too, from 2.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m.

At several exam centres in Hyderabad, students who reached a couple of minutes late were not allowed inside. EAMCET convenor N.V. Ramana Rao had already declared that students reaching even a minute late would not be allowed to take the exam.

Thousands of students had reached exam centres one to two hours before the scheduled time.

However, there were many others who were caught in long traffic jams in Hyderabad. Hundreds of vehicles were stranded in busy areas like Kukatpally, Panjagutta, Malakpet and L.B. Nagar.

Over 80,000 students are writing EAMCET in Hyderabad alone. The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) is running special buses for the candidates.

At one exam centre in Kukatpally, parents staged a protest when officials allowed a legislator inside the centre. J. Prabhakar, a member of the legislative council and a YSR Congress leader, had come there with his son, who was writing the exam.

EAMCET and police officials said they were keeping a close watch on certain suspicious candidates identified by them.

Ramana Rao said they were monitoring the movements of senior students born in 1980s, those who had written the test on many occasions in the past and those who paid a hefty late fee of Rs.5,000 to Rs.10,000 as against normal fee of Rs.250.

As part of the large-scale arrangements, police deployed even bomb disposal squads at the exam centres while all candidates, including girls, were frisked.