The Medical Council of India (MCI) has approved a new medical college to be set up by the Malla Reddy Group of Institutions in Hyderabad, which would result in an addition of 150 MBBS seats from this academic year 2012-13. The Malla Reddy Group runs a chain of engineering, pharmacy, MBA, MCA and M.Tech colleges in the city. It has diversified into medical education by establishing the Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences at Jeedimetla in the city. The group has set up the 350-bed Malla Reddy Hospital for the purpose.
“We received an approval letter from MCI on June 21 for 150 MBBS seats. These seats will be included in the Eamcet medical counselling scheduled to begin in July,” said Malla Reddy, founder and chairman of Malla Reddy Group. The MCI approvals for two more medical colleges to be set up by the Apollo Hospitals Group and an NRI group in Hyderabad and Vishakapatnam respectively, are expected by June-end with an intake of 100 seats in each of the colleges. With this, the total number of MBBS seats in the state is set to cross the 5000 mark this year. At present, there are 37 medical colleges in the state with 4,850 seats. Of them, 14 are in the government sector, and 23 in the private sector. The number of private colleges will increase to 26 this year with the approval for three new colleges by the MCI.
This apart, the MCI has given approval for an increase in seats from 100 seats to 150 seats each in Alluri Sitarama Raju Academy of Medical Sciences, Eluru, and Katuri Medical College, Guntur, for this year. The MCI has renewed the permission for 100 seats in the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Srikakulam, for this year. The approvals for all the remaining existing colleges are expected by June 30.
Although the MBBS seats in the state are set to cross the 5000 mark, the demand for MBBS seats is much higher, as nearly 95,000 students have appeared for the Eamcet exam this year.