Telangana government medical colleges to get 150 MBBS seats

Hyderabad: An additional 150 MBBS seats in government sector will be on offer in Telangana state from the coming academic year. The college, to be set up in Mahbunbagar, will be the first government-run medical college in five years.

It will be a boon for Eamcet medicine toppers as they can pursue MBBS for a fee of just Rs 10,000 per year. The Telangana state government has decided to start the medical college in the existing district medical hospital premises in Mahbub-nagar temporarily before moving it to a permanent campus in three years.

TS has five government medical colleges, which have 850 seats. Fifteen private medical colleges offer another 2,100 seats. "We have already submitted a proposal to the Medical Council of India for opening the college at Mahbubnagar. The MCI is expected to come for inspection soon.

Officials of medical education department and senior faculty from Osmania and Gandhi Medical Colleges visited the Mahbubnagar hospital premises recently and expressed satisfaction over the facilities available there," said health minister C.Laxma Reddy. Dr Reddy said the government has proposed to start the college with 150 MBBS seats in the first year and the existing infrastructure facilities were sufficient to secure MCI approval.

"We have also initiated the process to recruit faculty.  The response has been encouraging with senior faculty members coming forward to teach in Mahbubnagar," he added. The last medical college that was set up in government sector was at Nizamabad, which became operational from 2014, though it was announced in 2009.

Since establishment of a medical college involves an investment of over Rs 400 crore, subsequent governments shied away from setting up new colleges and instead encouraged private players.