Ahead of the commencement of MBBS classes for students this academic year, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami inaugurated the Government Medical College at Karur through video-conferencing at the Secretariat on Wednesday.The college, constructed at a cost of Rs 115.17 crore, will function with an intake of 150 MBBS students from Thursday.

An official release said the government also allotted Rs 25.64 crore for procurement of equipment for the college. Former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had announced the construction of the college in the Assembly in 2014. Palaniswami also inaugurated new buildings for Primary Health Centres in the districts, including Coimbatore, The Niligiris, Namakkal, Thoothukudi, Tiruchy and Virudhunagar constructed at a cost of Rs 9.60 crore. Health minister C Vijaya Baskar, Health Secretary Beela Rajesh, Director of Public Health K Kolandaswamy and Director of Medical Education A Edwin Joe were among those present.

And with this inauguration, out of the 22 medical colleges in the state, Karur MCH will start functioning as the 23rd MCH from this academic year where 150 seats have been filled through counselling. Later, addressing the media persons, minister Vijayabaskar said "With 700 patient intake in the hospital and 300 patient intake in the emergency block, Karur government medical college hospital has a total capacity of 1,000 patients. Thanks to our CM Edappadi Palanisamy for inaugurating the medical college here in Karur. I would also like to thank the health minister of the state for immediately accepting my request to provide the advanced MRI scan equipment which rotates 360 degrees, like the one in the Stanley hospital in Chennai which is worth Rs.6 crores to Karur MCH."