10,000 New Medical Seats Likely to Be Added in 2024-2025 Session

A total of 112 new medical colleges have applied for starting MBBS course. These colleges can start functioning once the NMC conducts inspection and gives approval. This apart, 52 existing colleges have applied for increasing its intake capacity.

Kota: More than 25 lakh students have applied for the NEET UG 2024 exam that will be held on May 5. Currently, around 1.10 lakh seats are available across medical colleges in India and around 10,000 seats are expected to be added as 112 new colleges have applied for starting MBBS course.

Kota's education expert Dev Sharma said that the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB), working under the National Medical Commission (NMC), has released a list of 112 medical institutions, which have applied to start MBBS. MARB has issued information through email to all the proposed medical institutions and asked them to wait till further orders. Sharma said that after meeting the established standards of the commission, these institutions will be allowed to begin admission that is likely to start from the 2024-25 academic session itself.

Sharma said that NMC inspections are pending in the new 112 and existing 52 colleges. The intake in the new colleges will be around 100 to 150 while around 50 seats are to be increased in the 52 existing colleges. After NMC's inspection, 75 out of the proposed 112 new medical colleges would start functioning and if the number of seats is increased by 100 per college, then a total of 7500 seats will be added. This apart, around 2500 seats will be added in the 52 medical colleges. This takes the additional seat count in medical colleges to around 10,000.

Dr. RK Aggarwal, Director of the proposed Sudha Medical College in Kota, said that an intake of 150 students has been planned and preparations have been taken accordingly. "NMC inspection is still pending and admission can start only after the commission's approval. We are fully prepared to start our sessions from 2024-25 itself. We have been making arrangements for a long time. We have come up with separate buildings for the hospital and the medical college in Jagpura," Dr Aggarwal said.

According to Dev Sharma, currently there are 1,09,145 seats in 706 medical colleges as per NMC's website. Of which, there are 389 government or government sponsored colleges having 56380 MBBS seats while 52,765 seats are available in 317 private medical colleges. Once the additional seats are taken into consideration, the number of MBBS seats in India will cross 1.20 lakh.

He said that among the 112 new medical colleges, 11 are proposed in Rajasthan. Of these, six are government and five private. These colleges are in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Baran, Sawai-Madhopur, Sriganganagar, Jhunjhunu, Nagaur and Banswara cities.

Of these, two colleges each in Jaipur and Jodhpur and one each in Kota and Sriganganagar are private colleges. On the other hand, government medical colleges have been proposed in Nagaur, Sawai Madhopur, Baran, Jhunjhunu and Banswara.

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