Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday stated while addressing Rajya Sabha, that a total of 157 medical colleges are under different stages of implementation out of which 58 are undergoing first phase, 24 are in the second and 75 recently announced are under the third phase.

He said, “Besides, there were 50,000 medical college seats in the country till 2014 and after that, in the last over six years, 30,000 additional medical colleges seats have been created. More seats would be added with the setting up of these new colleges.”

“So far, 22 All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) have been sanctioned under the Modi government. Out of these, 16 AIIMS have been in different stages of implementation since the last seven years,” he added.

In response to a question during the question hour with supplementary, the minister said, “under phase 3, four medical colleges have been approved in Karnataka in the year 2019-20 to be establishes at Chikkamangaluru, Haveri, Yadgiri and Chikkaballapura with intake capacity of 150 MBBS seats each.”

He said the medical colleges have been approved at a cost of Rs. 325 crores each to be shared between the Centre and the state government in the ratio of 60:40. The Narendra Modi government, in its second tenure, sanctioned 75 medical colleges in various states of the country. These are preferably in the aspirational districts and areas where the most deprived people live and where there is no medical college either in private or government sector, said Dr. Harsh Vardhan.