The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has approved proposals for six new medical colleges in Tamil Nadu, under a Centrally sponsored scheme. As per a circular issued on Wednesday, the hospitals will be set up in Tirupur, Nilgiris, Ramanathapuram, Namakkal, Dindigul and Virudhunagar.
The Central government will bear 60% of the cost and the state 40%, thereby increasing the number of medical colleges in Tamil Nadu to 29. While the Centre will be shelling out Rs 1,170 crore, the state government's share will be Rs 780 crore. The total cost of the project will be Rs 1,950 crore.
Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami termed this a historic achievement and thanked the Centre for sanctioning the proposal. The approval comes just two days after two committees of the Medical Council of India gave its nod to the setting up of the six colleges. State Health Minister C Vijayabaskar had said that only the Centre's decision was pending.
The Tamil Nadu government also plans to apply for three more medical colleges in Krishnagiri, Nagapattinam and Tiruvallur. That would add another 450 MBBS seats and the Health Minister said it would help create tertiary care hospitals in the districts.
The work to establish the colleges in district headquarters has accelerated since August when the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved setting up of 75 government medical colleges by 2021-2022. Tamil Nadu, which has made a policy decision to open a medical college in every district, presented its proposal to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan in September.
According to ToI, the state government had already decided the location of the colleges and even made various arrangements such as identification of the land, before taking the proposal to the Centre.
This reportedly included the administrative building of Hindustan Photo Films in Ooty, the space within Virudhunagar's Collectorate complex and near the government hospital in Tirupur.