TN: New Medical college with 150 MBBS seats to come up in Ooty; foundation laid

Tamil Nadu: The foundation stone for a new medical college has been laid down by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Friday in Nilgiri district, Ooty. The college will have 150 MBBS seats and the total construction of the college will cost Rs 447.32 crore. Palaniswami laid the foundation through videoconferencing and the function was attended by local MLAs and senior district officials.

Coming up in an area of 40 acres in the Fingerpost area, it would also house a super-speciality hospital, with modern equipment, hostels for medical students, quarters for doctors, and a control room for 108 ambulances. This new college is going to be one of the 11 new medical colleges sanctioned by the Central government for Tamil Nadu last year.

The Medical Dialogues team had reported previously that a few days ago Tamil Nadu CM announced the construction of a new medical college at Siruvangoor village of Kallakurichi district.

The CM had recently laid the foundation of a medical college in Arilyur and Kallakurichi district as well.

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According to an official release, now both the state and central governments have sanctioned the first instalments of Rs 110 crore and Rs 50 crore respectively to facilitate the construction of buildings. While the central share of the total project cost (of Rs 447.32 crore) is Rs 195 crore, the Tamil Nadu government would contribute its share of Rs 130 crore. Additionally, the Tamil Nadu government has sanctioned Rs 122.32 crore for the construction of additional buildings.

This was the last college among the proposed 11 medical colleges (in Nilgiris, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Dindigul, Tirupur, Namakkal, Nagappattinam, Krishnagiri, Tiruvallur, Kallakurichi and Ariyalur). After the foundation stone has been laid by Palaniswami, he also informed that these teaching institutions are expected to be functional from the next academic year.

As on date, there are 25 government medical colleges in Tamil Nadu including the Madras Medical College (to which the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital is attached) which is among the oldest and largest institutions imparting medical education in India. Despite having popular tourist places and being a major producer of plantation crops, the district lacked speciality healthcare facilities, and people, including tea estate workers, have to depend on hospitals in neighbouring Coimbatore and Erode cities. Locals are happy as it would also be a boon to medical aspirants from the district who now go outside for pursuing medical education.

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