Odisha: New medical college at Kalahandi receives Letter of Intent to start admissions

The LoI was issued by the NMC, following an affidavit submitted by the state's Health Department
Image for representational purpose only | (Pic: Express)
Image for representational purpose only | (Pic: Express)

On Thursday, April 7, the newly-built Government Medical College and Hospital (MCH) at Bhawanipatna in the Kalahandi district of Odisha received a Letter of Intent (LoI) to start admitting students from the 2023-24 academic session. The LoI was issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC), following an affidavit submitted by the state's Health and Family Welfare Department.

The affidavit mentioned that all infrastructure facilities, faculty and resident doctors would be provided as per the norms. Later, a team from the NMC visited the MCH and submitted the assessment report on the availability of infrastructure, labs, library, hostels, hospital, faculty and paramedical staff on February 14, as per a report by The New Indian Express.

The college is built at a cost of Rs 220 crore over an area of 35 acres at Bhangabari on the outskirts of Bhawanipatna. It has six academic blocks. However, since it is still under construction, the existing hospital at Bhawanipatna is being developed into a 330-bed hospital to meet the requirements.

The MCH has been affiliated to Kalahandi University and has an intake capacity of 100 MBBS seats per year. The state government has been asked to submit undertakings with an assurance to provide essential documents for the issue of a Letter of Permission (LoP) for starting admissions.

Health Secretary Shalini Pandit informed that most of the faculty and paramedical staff members have already joined the college. "The pending works will be completed soon and we are hopeful of obtaining the LoP for 100 seats this academic session," she said. However, the NMC has made it clear that no student should be admitted to the new college till formal permission from the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) is received.

Once the LoP is issued, the new MCH will be the 11th such institution in the state taking the total number of seats to 2,300, including 750 seats in private medical colleges. With this, the KBK (Kalahandi, Koraput and Balangir) region of Odisha will have one medical college each in the three districts. The MCHs in Koraput and Balangir are already functional, as per TNIE.

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