Punjab to get 7 new medical colleges, says health minister Balbir Singh

Chandigarh: Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh on Thursday announced the establishment of seven new medical colleges across the state. The project includes the development of two government medical colleges, two institutions under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode, and three through private and minority organisations.

Addressing the media here, Singh said the construction work for the Shaheed Udham Singh State Institute of Medical Sciences in Hoshiarpur will begin on March 20, with a completion deadline of March 2028. This project has received administrative approval for Rs 274.75 crore and will feature a 300-bed hospital alongside a medical college with a 100-seat annual MBBS intake, the minister said.

He added that after a review of previous estimates, the state government managed to reduce the project cost from an initial Rs 550 crore to Rs 274 crore, effectively saving nearly Rs 250 crore of public funds. Another government medical college is being established at Kapurthala, for which the tendering process has been completed, and the construction work will begin shortly, Singh said.

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The colleges to be established under the PPP mode will come up in Sangrur and SBS Nagar, for which the tendering process is underway, he said. The minister also said that a Jain minority college is coming up at Lehragaga in Sangrur district, for which the government has leased land after signing an MoU, while a Muslim minority college will be established at Malerkotla, for which a detailed project report has been submitted to the Central government.

Similarly, a private medical college is also coming up near Ludhiana, he said. The minister said the establishment of the seven new medical colleges will significantly increase the state's medical education capacity, and local students will no longer have to go to countries like Ukraine, China or Nepal to obtain medical degrees.

Punjab currently has 13 medical colleges with 1,900 MBBS seats, and with these new institutions, approximately 600 additional seats will be added, he said. Singh also said the existing medical colleges in Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot are being upgraded to the postgraduate level to provide super-speciality services.

According to officials, the Shaheed Udham Singh State Institute of Medical Sciences in Hoshiarpur will include a five-storey hospital building and a three-storey medical college building equipped with modern laboratories, a library, and a 500-seat auditorium. The clinical infrastructure will span various specialities, including ICU, general surgery, orthopaedics, and psychiatry, supported by MRI and CT scan facilities.