The Gujarat government has decided to build the medical colleges in Panchmahal, Gir-Somnath, Devbhumi-Dwarka, Botad and Morbi districts. The government of Gujarat has sent the approval for the same as the estimated cost for setting up the colleges will be Rs 1625 crores and central share will be 60 per cent.

According to words of Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, each new medical college would have 100 seats of MBBS. Once the centre approves five new colleges, the total MBBS intake in Gujarat would cross 6300. He also added, “”The Union government has identified 75 districts in the country which do not have a medical college.

Few months back, we had sent a proposal to build medical colleges in Narmada, Porbandar and Navsari districts. Now, we are sending another proposal to the Centre to approve medical colleges in these five districts.”

The Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said that existing government -run hospitals in Panchmahal, Gir-somnath, Devbhumi-Dwarka, Botad and Morbi districts would be attached to the new colleges after upgrading them as per Medical Council of India (MCI) norms.

As per Medical Council of India MCI norms, the attached hospital must have at least 300 beds to run a medical college. Mr Patel said, “the state government will first upgrade these five hospitals before building the medical colleges. Therefore, the expenditure will increase to Rs 1625 crores as cost for each college would be Rs 325 crore.”

The proposed medical colleges will be situated in Godhra town in Panchmahal, Khambhalia in Devbhumi-Dwarka, Veraval in Gir-Somnath, and in Botad and Morbi.

The Deputy CM said, “As per the central scheme, 60 per cent of the Rs 1625 crore cost for the five colleges will be borne by the Centre while the state government would contribute 40 percent. We will a give the land free of cost. Each college will have the intake capacity of 100 MBBS seats.”