Tamil Nadu Gets 11 New Medical Colleges; Inauguration Today

Tamil Nadu is all set for a quantum jump in medical infrastructure with the inauguration of 11 new Government Medical Colleges by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 12 January, 2022, at 4 pm via videoconferencing.

The new medical colleges will be established in the following districts — Virudhunagar, Namakkal, The Nilgiris, Tiruppur, Thiruvallur, Nagapattinam, Dindigul, Kallakurichi, Ariyalur, Ramanathapuram and Krishnagiri.

These are being established at an estimated cost of Rs 4,000 crore of which Rs 2,145 crore is the share of the Union government and the remaining amount shall be met by the Tamil Nadu government.

The new medical colleges have a cumulative capacity of 1,450 seats. While the ones in Namakkal, Ramanathapuram, Tiruvallur and Tiruppur have been allotted 100 seats each, the rest are allotted 150 seats.

The new medical colleges are being established under the Centrally Sponsored scheme of ’Establishing of New Medical Colleges attached with existing district/referral hospital’.

Government of India has relentlessly pursued the aim of cultivating more human resources through Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) that seek to address not only the issues of equity in medical education and but also geographic disparity in availability of medical care.

As part of this, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare administers a CSS for ‘Establishment of new Medical Colleges attached with existing district/referral hospitals’.

Under the scheme, medical colleges are established in districts which do not have either a government or private medical college. Preference is given to underserved/backward/Aspirational Districts. As per the scheme guidelines, the State Government is the implementing agency and the planning, execution and commissioning of the projects is to be done by the State Government.

Total cost of establishment of one medical college is to be shared between Centre and State in the ratio of 90:10 for NE/Special Category States and 60:40 for other States.

As per a written reply by the Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare in the Lok Sabha in December 2021, as many as 157 new medical colleges have been approved under the scheme in three phases including 39 in Aspirational Districts.

Out of these, 70 medical colleges have become functional till date.

Under Phase-I of the scheme launched in January 2014, as many as 58 districts in 20 States/UT have been approved for the setting up of such institutions.

Phase-II which was launched in February 2018 saw 24 colleges approved. The Phase-III of the scheme has been approved by the Cabinet in August 2019 to establish 75 more new medical colleges.

The 11 new medical colleges being inaugurated today are a part of the Phase-III of the scheme.