After a high-level cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar and Piyush Goyal said at a press conference that the government has authorized the establishment of 75 new medical colleges in the country. Javadekar said that the addition would lead to the creation of 15,700 more MBBS seats in India.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has stated that the medical colleges would be established by 2021-22 and will be attached with existing district and referral hospitals under Phase-3 of the ongoing Centrally Sponsored scheme.

The minister announced that new medical colleges would be set up in under-served regions with no medical college or those with at least 200 beds. A notification by PIB said that Preference will be given to district hospitals with 300 beds. The medical colleges would be set up at an estimated cost of Rs 24,375 crore.

The government had earlier approved the establishment of 58 medical colleges to be attached with existing district and referral hospitals under phase I of the scheme and 24 institutes under the Phase-II. Of these, 39 medical colleges under Phase 1 have already become functional, and the rest will be made functional by 2020-21.