Twitter
Advertisement

Maharashtra plans two medical colleges in state soon

Maharashtra's wait for the much-needed public investment and capacity addition in the medical education sector may finally end as the state government is planning to start two medical colleges in the coming academic year. Put together, these new hospitals and medical colleges will also help overhaul the state's bare-bones public health system.

Latest News
article-main
Representational image.
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

Maharashtra's wait for the much-needed public investment and capacity addition in the medical education sector may finally end as the state government is planning to start two medical colleges in the coming academic year. Put together, these new hospitals and medical colleges will also help overhaul the state's bare-bones public health system.

The erstwhile Congress-NCP state government had decided to set up six new medical colleges at Gondia, Satara, Chandrapur, Alibaug, Nandurbar and Baramati. There were plans to establish another medical college in Mumbai on the premises of the GT and St George hospitals.

Senior officials from the medical education department said they planned to start two new medical colleges at Chandrapur and Gondia in the coming academic year. "We have a newly-constructed 100-bed hospital each at these two places and will use the buildings for the medical colleges. New college buildings will be constructed in two years... We have been given 25-acre land at Chandrapur by the district collector and the forest department has released a 25-acre plot at Gondia," he added.

However, the official said that the other medical colleges had been put on hold till the set-up of these two colleges, which will have 100-seats each, was completed.

"However, the Medical Council of India (MCI) has pointed to some lacunae in the Gondia and Chandrapur medical colleges like the lack of a college building and lecture and practical halls. We are trying to fulfill these conditions," he added.

Maharashtra has 14 government-run medical colleges at Ambejogai, Aurangabad, Latur, Nanded, Akola, Yavatmal, two in Nagpur, Dhule, Pune, Kolhapur, Miraj, Solapur and Grant Medical College (GMC) in Mumbai with a total of 2,100 seats.

The last increase in government medical college seats was in 2002 when three medical colleges with an intake of 300 under-graduate seats were started at Kolhapur, Latur and Akola. The new medical colleges would add another 100 under-graduate seats each in the government sector, in a relief for aspiring students who will get a breather in the dog-eat-dog competition to get admission to government medical colleges as compared to non-transparent and costly private sector medical education.

In 1989, medical colleges were started at Dhule, Yavatmal and Nanded, with 150 MBBS seats and 1975 saw the Ambejogai medical college (50 seats) being established.

Finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar has earlier said that faced with a massive expenditure for the construction of these new government medical colleges, they were looking at options like developing them on public private partnership (PPP) basis. This will be a first of its kind initiative.


 

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement