Gujarat to get 170 new medical seats: Minister

Gujarat Health Minister Nitin Patel announced here today that two state medical colleges would get 170 new seats for the MBBS course under a central government scheme.
According to Patel, the Centre has floated a scheme recently to increase seats in medical colleges, under which the state government would get grants in the ratio of 70:30 from the Centre. For each new seat, the state would get Rs 1.20 crore from Centre, Patel said through a press release.
Out of these new 170 MBBS seats, Government Medical College in Surat which has 150 seats at present, would get 100 new seats, taking the total number of seats to to 250. Rest of the 70 seats would be given to Government Medical College in Vadodara, which has 180 seats. The total number of medical seats in Gujarat would reach 250, Patel said.

The minister said that the Centre has also approved a grant of Rs 150 crore to upgrade existing district hospitals and set up new medical colleges attached to these hospitals. The Gujarat state government would allot Rs 50 crore for the purpose, Patel said.
The Gujarat government has sent a list of five such hospitals to the Centre, including Palanpur, Nadiad, Amreli, Godhra and Vyara.
After the Centre's approval, hospitals at each of these towns would get a medical college attached to them, Patel said.