The Kalyani Medical College, which is coming up in the Nadia district, next to the JNM Hospital, on a 76-acre expanse for which the state government provided an initial allotment of Rs 116 crore.

According to officials of the West Bengal University of Health Sciences, the new medical college at Kalyani awaits a final inspection by the Medical Council of India (MCI). The college will admit 100 MBBS students in the first year.

“After the MCI inspection, we will add 100 more seats at the upcoming medical college in Kalyani,” said Prof Pradip De, Vice-Chancellor of West Bengal University of Health Sciences. In contrast to the number of seats in engineering colleges, which has now leapfrogged to about 24,000 seats in the state, the situation in government medical colleges remained almost static in contrast, with nine medical colleges across the state having 1,105 seats.

The Calcutta Medical College has 155 seats while NRS Medical College, RG Kar Medical College and Calcutta National Medical College have 150 seats each.

Other than this, the Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER), Burdwan Medical College, Midnapore Medical College, Bankura Sammilani Medical College and North Bengal Medical College have 100 seats each.

The state has one private medical college, the KPC Medical College, where admissions to 75 seats are done through the JEE examination.

Siddhartha Datta, chairman of Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Board, which conducts the JEE exams for engineering and medical seats, said it is likely that additional medical seats could be added from this academic session itself. The JEE examination is scheduled for April 18 and the results are likely to be announced in June.

Officials of the University of Health Sciences said if classes begin from August, like last year, the academic session at Kalyani Medical College could begin at the same time. With shortage of trained medical professionals in mind, the state government, in December last year, had passed the controversial Rural Health Regulatory Authority Bill, 2009, for a three-year diploma in medical sciences.

In a move to start an MBBS course in Railway Hospitals across the country, Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, in the annual budget last year, had announced the setting up of medical colleges in railway hospitals.