MP govt floats tenders for 5 PPP model medical colleges

Bhopal: Giving a push to its ambitious proposal to establish new medical colleges under the public-private-partnership (PPP) model, the Madhya Pradesh government has floated tenders for it.

Deputy Chief Minister Rajendra Shukla on Wednesday informed that a complete roadmap has been prepared for inviting tenders and a meeting will be called soon after the results of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections are announced on June 4.

It would be the first time that medical colleges will be established on the PPP model in Madhya Pradesh. A proposal for this has already been approved by the Chief Minister Mohan Yadav led Madhya Pradesh cabinet in March this year.

"In the first phase, five medical colleges will be opened under the PPP model. Tenders for some of these projects have been floated. We will proceed further on the basis of the private parties," Shukla, who is also MP's health minister, said.

This model will reduce the investment cost and the investor will only need to build the medical college and not a hospital along with it.

For the establishment of medical colleges under the PPP model, the government will provide land at the collector's guideline rates to investors, he said.

He added that six new government-run medical colleges will become operational from the next academic year. "With these six, the number of government-run medical colleges in MP will increase to 20. Five medical colleges (PPP model) will be added in the next two years, and then we will have 25 medical colleges," he said.

The minister informed that the state government is preparing to establish one medical college in every district. There are 53 districts in Madhya Pradesh, including two - Mauganj (separated from Rewa district) and Pandhurna (separated from Chhindwara district), which were made districts during the assembly elections in November last year.